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PHOTOGEAPHIC VIEWS 



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EGYPT, PAST AND PEESENT. 



•V 



BY 

JOSEPH PjP^THOMPSON. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND, OHIO: 

JEWETT, PROCTOR, AND WORTHINGTON 

1856. 



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k1 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in ttie year 1854, by 

JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. 

in tlie Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachnsetts. 



.^x;3^^- 



CAMBRIDGE: 

ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEEEOTYPERS AND PRINTEKS. 



boston: engravings by daniel t. smith. 



TO 

MY COMPANIONS U TRAVEL, 

PEOF, THOMAS C. UPIIAM, D. D., OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE, ME., 

AND 
BENJAMIN S. WALCOTT, ESQ., AND LADY OP NEW YORK MILLS, N. T., 

THIS M E M. E N T O 

OF OUR HAPPY VOYAGE UPON THE NILE 

IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, 



PREFACE 



In the montli of January, 1853, I found myself afloat 
upon the Nile. Six months before, I had left New 
York in the uncertainty of pulmonary disease, to try the 
benefit of a year of travel in more genial climes. The 
balmy air of Egypt brought healing to my lungs, and 
with this came an almost boyish gush of life ; so that in 
the soul, as in the outer world, it was the. "Season of 
Vegetation" after the "Season of the Waters." For 
three months the light of each "morning without clouds" 
pictured in the mind the scenery of the Nile, the passing 
scenes of Egyptian life, and the lingering monuments of 
Egyptian history, in lines that can never be effaced ; and 
in the abundant leisure of boat life, these views were 
transferred from the mind to paper. Each view was 
taken by the light which itself threw upon the mind; — 
photographed by the outward upon the inward, and again 
transferred from the inward to the outward. These 
impressions, as taken at the time, were laid by for future 
reference. A few have been exhibited to friends in 
public journals and in lectures; and now the whole are 
bound together in this volume, for whoever cares to look 

•A* 



VI PREFACE, 

at life pictures of a distant land. If the picture is gay 
or grotesque, it is because the reality was gay or gro- 
tesque ; if the picture is sombre, it is because the reality 
was sombre. If in turning over these leaves, any shall 
find innocent amusement for a passing hour, the humble 
copyist of nature will be glad of such a measure of .'suc- 
cess in transferring her mirthful phases; — if any shall 
be saddened by these life pictures — why he too was often 
sad at seeing under the sunniest sky, deeper shadows than 
clouds can throw ; if any shall find instruction in the 
pictures, he will be thankful that he did not see and 
study Egypt for himself alone. For this, his first attempt 
in the photography of nature, of history, and of human 
life, his only claim is that the pictures are faithful; — 
taken as they were, and given as they were taken. 

The Illustrations of this volume are copied chiefly 
from the works of Bartlett and Lane, which, in this 
respect, are the common plunder of American authors. 

As the autlior knows nothing of the Arabic language, he 
has been perplexed with the orthography of Arabic words, 
in which authorities differ. The following are examples of 
diverse spellings : Tarhouch, tarboosh ; Cawass, cavasse ; 
Hawdgee, Howadji ; Janissary, Janizary ; Ghihouque, she- 
hooh ; Backshish, huchsheesh ; Mameluke, Memlooh ; Amrou, 
Amer, Amr ; Sheik, sheikh, shekh. In either mode the 
English sound is but an approximation to the Arabic. 

In English orthography the author is a pertinacious 
disciple ' of Webster, but he has yielded throughout to 
the printer's use of Worcester. 



PREFACE. VU 

The author feels indebted to the printers for their 
extremely careful reading of the proofs. If errors are 
still found, the reader will excuse them when he thinks 
of the difficulties of revising proofs from stereotype plates, 
at a distance of three hundred miles from the offiice. 
New York, May, 1854. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

First Impressions — Alexandria, Ancient and Modern . 1 



CHAPTER II. 
Preparations for the Voyage — Donkeys — Cooks — Mar- 
keting 17 

CHAPTER III. 

The Embarkation — Maiimoodeeii Canal — The Nile . . 26 

CHAPTER IV. 
Nile Comforts — A Nile Boat and Crew .... 32 

CHAPTER V. 
Navigation — Villages — Bazaar — Houses — Children . 45 

CHAPTER VI. 
Occupations of the People — Water Jars — Productiojss — 

Tillage — The Shadoof and the Sakia .... 54 

CHAPTER VII. 
Tenure of Land — Disposition And Manners of the People 64 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Desert and the Railroad 70 

CHAPTER IX. 
"Cairo the Magnificent" 74 



X. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 
Scenery of the Nile — Day and Night . . . . . 82 

CHAPTER XL 
MiNiEH — A Sugar Factory — Visit to a Bey .... 90 

CHAPTER XII. 
KiVER Saints, and Coptic Hermits 96 



CHAPTER Xm. 
Sabbath on the Nile— A Missionary Incident . . . 100 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Marriage and Mourning • 112 

CHAPTER XV. 
Orientalizing— A Village Coffee House .... 115 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Crocodiles 122 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Denderah — Keneh — A Human Heart 125 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Trees and Birds 132 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Negadeh — Salutations — A Coptic Church . . . .137 

CHAPTER XX. 
Mother Egypt — Thebes— Temples and Monuments — The 

Nineteenth Century 143 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Memnon still Sounds 152 ' 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Fragments of Theban History — Sources — Eosetta Stone — 

hieroglyfhics — antiquities 158 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
Chronology of the Bible 177 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

History continued — Correspondences with the Bible , 18i 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Kecent Discoveries at Thebes — Memorials of Early Chris- 
tianity 190 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Tombs of Thebes — Manners and Customs of the 

Ancient Egyptians 197 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Gods of the Egyptians — Doctrine of Immortality . . 210 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
Dissolving Views — Panorama of Karnac .... 218 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
A Chapter of Items — Parting rR03i Thebes — Getting 

News — The Sirocco — Emigration — Inauguration Day 231 

CHAPTER XXX. 

GlEGEH AND AbYDOS — FERTILITY AND DESOLATION . . 241 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Italians and Copts . 247 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
OsiooT, or Wolf-to wisr — The Old and the New — A Modern 
Cemetery— Soldier Making— John the Hermit . . 253 



XU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Antiquity of Art and Science — Tkue Antiquity of Egypt 263 

CHAPTEK XXXIV. 

Climate of the Nile — A Chapter for Invalids . . . 274 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
Cairo again — Shoobra — Ehoda — Old Cairo — The Der- 

wiSHES 283 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

MoHAMMEDi^^isM — Mosques and Prayers . . . . 289 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Mohammedan Infidels — Prospects of Evangelization — 

Toleration 298 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Early Christianity in Egypt — Persecutions and Tri- 
umphs — Destruction of Idolatry 308 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Hope for Egypt — The Copts, their History and Ritual- 
A Plea for Missions 



CHAPTER XL. 
Heliopolts, the City of Joseph— The Pyramids and Sphinx — 
Egypt a Sepulchre 338 



APPENDIX .347 

Religious Chant 347 

Table of Egyptian Dynasties, by Lepsius . . .348 
" " •' » " Poole . . .355 



EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT 



CHAPTER I. 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS. ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND 

MODERN. 

The sun rose gloriously over the ancient Pharos, and 
shone into the very eye of our steamer as she hovered 
about the harbor awaiting her pilot ; a sun that had already 
wakened Memnon to his daily music, and had kissed the 
pyramids upon its way to greet the bounding, laughing sea. 
Th^N gates of the Orient opened wide before us upon hinges 
of gold and amber and rubies. Sea-sickness and the dis- 
comforts of the voyage were in a moment forgotten, and I 
felt that I would again travel six thousand miles to stand 
where I then stood. 

And this is Egypt ! That just expiring light marks the 
site of one of the seven wonders of the world — the first 
great light-house that illumined the Mediterranean, when 
Greece and Rome began to share the commerce of the 
Orient ; and within that rocky headland which guards so 
well the approach to the long, narrow, egg-shaped harbor, — 
all along that level shore, now studded with windmills 
above, and crowded with catacombs beneath, — lies the city 
of Alexander the Great. I look upon the land that in the 
time of Moses was in its prime, and that has been old and 
1 



2 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

decaying through all the growth and history of the present 
living world. 

At this moment a small boat, propelled by eight or ten 
barelegged rowers in smocks and turbans, comes along-side, 
and two pilots mount the gangway and take their station on 
the wheelbox. They are barelegged like the rest, but they 
wear leathern sandals, and their turbans are of a better 
quality, and their smocks are girdled about the w^aist with a 
wdiite cord ; on the whole they make a very neat appear- 
ance. They seem deeply impressed with the magnitude 
of their office, and hold grave consultations together, the 
result of which is signified by sundry motions of the hand 
to the steersman, accompanied with a spasmodic guttural 
jargon ; — for the familiar " Port " and " Steady " are now 
uttered in Arabic to a French officer, and by him translated 
to the man at the wheel. Altogether it is quite a pic- 
turesque affair — these two Arabs with their unshorn beards, 
their heads wrapped about with huge white folds crowned 
with green and crimson, their bodies cased in a single loose 
frock descending to the knees, and their naked bronze calves 
terminating in light-colored sandals without string or buckle, 
standing in the eye of old Pharos, and guiding into the port 
of Alexander, a steamer bearing his name, manned and 
freighted by the " barbaric Gaul." 

It would require two pilots, one would think, if not 
twenty, to steer a vessel through all the twists and turnings 
of this channel, where the waves are dashing over rocks at 
every twenty rods ; and one can accord something to the 
self-complacent air with which our two turbaned worthies 
slowly descend to the deck after the signal to let go the 
anchors. But -what a din comes up on all sides from the 
small boats by which we must be conveyed ashore ! At 
least twenty of these boats with their motley crews, are 
crowding about the larboard side of the steamer, jostling 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 3 

each other and struggling for the nearest place. In some 
the crews are half naked ; in others decently dressed ; but 
everywhere the bare legs, the single smock, and in lieu 
of the turban the tarhouch — a close-fitting red Fez * cap, 
with a black silk tassel. Now and then a turbaned head, 
surmounting a white frock and a pair of loose frilled 
trowsers of the same material, indicates some superiority in 
the wearer, who sits leisurely smoking his j)ipe in the midst 
of the confusion. Indeed it is one of the comicalities of the 
scene, that a fellow standing on the prow of his boat and 
gouging his neighbor into the water in order to make his 
own boat fast to the gangway, will stop in the very act to 
take a whiff of the tobacco which he is smoking through a 
curled paper. Nobody can come on board, nobody can go 
ashore, till the health officer has gone through with his 
formalities, nor till the mail has been despatched in a ship's 
boat under the French flag. Just here, two brawny French 
sailors pitch headlong down the gangway a troop of Arab 
boatmen who were climbing up on deck, and the mate 
dashes over their heads a bucket of cold water. 

Through the energy of our courier we are the first to put 
off from the ship, which is anchored about a third of a mile 
from the shore ; for here, as at almost every port of the 
Mediterranean, the whole business of receiving and of 
landing passengers and freight, is done by means of small 
boats. The harbor is filled with vessels of every European 
nation, but the American flag is not represented; there 
being almost no direct commerce between Egypt and the 
United States. Some noble men-of-war, from seventy-four 

* FeZy so called from the place of its manufacture, Fez, a principal city 
of Morocco, celebrated for the manufacture of milled woollen fabrics. 
This is the headdress of soldiers and sailors, and of the common people. 
It is worn also by the &ultan at Constantinople. It is gradually super- 
seding the turban. 



4 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

guns upward, and one or two war steamers, assert tlie 
dominion of the Crescent over the kingdom of the Pharaohs. 
A few old dismantled hulks are lying in the great dockyard 
near the palace, and immense piles of timber are stored 
there for future use. Every thing looks substantial and 
respectable. Even our own steamer, that just now tumbled 
about like a cockle-shell, has put on a calm and dignified air 
in harmony with the surrounding scene; — I mean the scene 
in the harbor, for there is not much of calmness or dignity 
here at the quay where we have now arrived. 

What a confusion of tongues ! Arabic, French, Maltese, 
Italian, and broken English, all rush upon the ear at the 
same instant, while the language of signs expresses still 
more emphatically than words the one idea upon every 
tongue ; — " Good donkey, sir," " Want ver fine donkey," 
" Donkey for hotel, good, English ride my donkey, ver 
good." About fifty of these little creatures are huddled 
together on the dock, unmoved by the clamor of their 
drivers or the punching of their sticks, while all around lazy 
lumbering camels are sprawling in the mud, or reaching out 
their gaunt ungainly necks as they deliver their loads of hay 
or of water-skins. We happily avoid this turmoil by steering 
for the far side of a stone wall that divides the dock, — but 
from Scylla we escape into the jaws of Charybdis, for here 
the custom-house Cawasses await us to see if gentlemen 
professedly bound for Upper Egypt on a travelling excur- 
sion, are in reality smuggling contraband goods in their 
carpet-bags or portmanteaus ; — into the jaws, of a truth, 
for nothing wags so briskly in Egypt, not even a donkey's 
tail, jerked every way by its driver, as does that member 
of an Arab's frame. However, as in Sardinia the franc, 
and in Tuscany and Eome the paul, and in Naples the 
carline, so here the piastre soon settles the question, and our 
baggage passes without even a showing of the keys. But 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. O 

tliis is not the end of it. The custom-house is just without 
the precincts of the city, and as we enter the gate another 
official rushes out and seizes the horses by the head, and 
insists upon inspecting the baskets, bundles, carpet-bags, etc., 
that by permission of the first set of officials and in con- 
sideration of one dollar, we have taken with us. After a 
long altercation in Arabic between the officers and the 
driver, the former take a survey of the exterior of each 
bag, judge by feeling of its probable contents, and permit 
us to proceed. This fairly over, a short ride brings us to 
the Hotel de V Europe, where a prisoner of the sea who has 
not eaten a meal for four days must be allowed to do justice 
to a well spread breakfast. This hotel, kept by an Italian, 
is quite unpromising, even shabby in external appear- 
ance and in its general furniture ; but its taUe-d'hote affi^rds 
good living at about $2.50 a day. It is reputed to be the 
best, and is situated upon the large parallelogram called the 
Frank square, where are most of the European shops and 
offices. With the thermometer at seventy, and an abun- 
dance of flies and mosquitoes, it is hard to realize that the 
true date is January 11th. 

But with the ever-recurring thought that we were in 
Egypt, we could not long remain shut up in an Italian hotel, 
overlooking a modern square surrounded with houses in the 
Frank style, and with shops displaying English cottons and 
French perfumery, and covered with French, Greek, Italian, 
and English signs. We must somewhere find the dreamy 
Orient. After a hasty but hearty breakfast, we set out on 
foot to visit the Mahmoodeeh canal, at a distance of a mile 
from our quarters, there to inspect the boats for the Nile. 
Our road lay through the principal streets to the gate of the 
Necropolis. Immediately without this gate we came for 
the first time upon a truly oriental scene. Upon a large 
open area, camels, sheep, and buffalo oxen were reposing, 
1* 



6 



EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 



while their owners were chaffering, pipe in hand ; a caravan 
of camels, laden with merchandise of various sorts, was 
entering the gate ; the tall palm tree lifted its spreading top 
toward the noonday sun, while groves of acacias lining the 
roads, offered their cooling shade ; on a neighboring mound 
stood a solitary Arab, his gaunt figure and turbaned head in 
bold relief against the sky ; the diminutive donkey, urged 
forward by his driver's prong, went nimbly by ; a score 
of wolfish dogs barked and howled at the approach of 
strangers ; but above their clamor were heard the myriad 
voices of birds, whose freedom had never been invaded by 
the sportsman, and whose song was in harmony with the 
delicious air and the gorgeous drapery in which all nature 
was enwrapped; — to complete the picture, the minaret that 
overlooks the bazaar, loomed in the distance, and immedi- 
ately before us Pompey's Pillar reared its stupendous mass 
of polished granite, in solitary grandeur — a monument of 
buried empires, a sentinel over recent tombs. 

This pillar is the one solitary monument of the old city 
upon its southern front, and answers to the one standing 
obelisk that is its solitary monument on the north. Of its 
origin history is as silent as the mummy of Belzoni's tomb ; 
but there is no doubt that " Pompey's Pillar is really a 
misnomer ; " for the inscription " shows it to have been 
erected by Publius, the prsefect of Egypt, in honor of Dio- 
cletian," * who subdued a revolt at Alexandria by capturing 
the city, A. d. 296. But whether it was then first hewn 
from the quarry, or was transported from some decaying 
temple up the Nile, the Greek lettering does not inform us. 
If the latter, — which, considering the decline of art and 
the pilfering propensities of the Romans, is probable — 
then this now lonely sentinel, an Egyptian column with a 

* Wilkinson, who first deciphered it. 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 7 

Greek inscription to a Roman emperor, has witnessed in 
turn the decay of Egypt, of Greece, and of Rome, upon 
the soil where it still disputes with Time the empire of the 
Past. 

To the reader of Gibbon, it may seem strange that a 
monument should have been reared at Alexandria in honor 
of a conqueror, who, during a siege of eight months, wasted 
the city by the sword and by fire, and who, when it finally 
capitulated and implored his clemency, caused it to feel " the 
full extent of his severity," and destroyed " thousands of its 
citizens in a promiscuous slaughter." The fact may serve 
to show the worthlessness of such monuments as testimonials 
to character, or as expressions of public esteem. 

But whatever may be its history or its associations, one 
cannot look upon this column without a feeling of astonish- 
ment and awe. Outside of the modern city walls and some 
six hundred yards to the south of them, away from the 
present homes of men', but on an eminence that overlooks 
the entire city, and in striking contrast with the meagre, 
attenuated style of its present architecture, stands this 
stupendous column of red granite, ninety-nine feet in height 
by thirty in circumference, its shaft an elegant monolith 
measuring seventy-three feet between the pedestal and the 
capital. It marks the site of an ancient stadium, and as 
some conjecture, of the gymnasium, which was surrounded 
with majestic porticos of granite. Now it looks down upon 
the rude and garish cemetery of the Mohammedans, whose 
plastered tombs glaring in the sun, crowd around its dis- 
mantled base. 

As we slowly sauntered away, the gorgeous memories 
of the past were broken by the mourning scenes of the 
present. Two funeral processions approached the pillar on 
their way to the burial-ground. First came a group of about 
twenty boys, ragged, barefoot, and bareheaded, chanting a 



8 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

wailing strain ; then followed twice as many men, walking 
two or four abreast, and uttering the same monotonous 
wail ; these were mostly clothed in turbans, long frocks, and 
trowsers, and wore a venerable appearance. I noticed in 
particular several blind men — so common in the East — 
led by the hand and supported by their staves ; next came 
the bier borne upon the shoulders of four men, the body 
wrapped in a white cloth and covered with a shawl, — the 
turban lay on top to indicate that the deceased was a male ; 
after this, straggling at intervals, came a few women, clothed 
in the long white veil, covering the face with the exception 
of the eyes and reaching to the anldes ; these uttered a 
different cry — a piercing shriek or a sustained waving howl 
that blended fearfully with the wailing of the men. The 
custom here is to bury on the day of death ; no coffin is 
used, but a grave is dug and the body, wrapped only in a 
cloth, is put into it; the grave is then covered with an 
arched stone laid in cement. The graveyard presents the 
singular appearance of a field of low stone mounds. 

The second procession consisted only of about twenty 
persons, in the centre of whom was a man who carried in 
his arms a dead child wrapped in a shawl, of which it would 
be divested at the grave, leaving only a light covering of 
cloth. 

From Pompey's Pillar to Cleopatra^ s Needles is a distance 
of more than a mile through the city in a north-easterly 
direction. These obelisks have no more relation to Cleopa- 
tra than the pillar has to Pompey. Their hieroglyphics 
date as far back as the Exodus,* and they were brought to 
Alexandria from the city of Heliopolis or On, about a 
hundred miles to the south. Each pillar is a single block 
of red granite, about seventy feet high and nearly eight feet 

* Thothmes III. Wilkinson and Lepsius. 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 9 

in diameter at the base. How sucli huge blocks were cut 
from the quarry, transported hundreds of miles, and erected 
upon their pedestals, is a mystery not solved by any thing 
yet discovered of ancient mechanic arts. But one of the 
obehsks is standing. The other was taken down to be 
transported to England, but now lies half buried in the mud 
and sand. On one side of the standing obelisk the hieroglyph- 
ics are distinctly legible, but on the northern or seaward 
side they are much defaced by the action of the weather. 
It stands upon the edge of the Great Harbor, in a line with 
the rock of Pharos that forms the extreme northern point 
of the horseshoe port. 

Besides the Pillar and the Needles nothing remains to 
testify the former splendor of Alexandria ; — a capital that 
once vied with Rome, containing a population equal to that 
of New York, (three hundred thousand freemen and as 
many slaves,) and that so late as the seventh century, accord- 
ing to the testimony of Amrou, its Saracenic conqueror, 
contained " four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, 
four hundred theatres, tivelve thousand shops for the sale 
of vegetables, and forty thousand tributary Jews." A few 
ruins are pointed out, but these are fast disappearing with 
the ravages of time. Its name is the only memorial of its 
founder ; and the long range of catacombs along the shore 
to the west of the city, the sole vestige of its ancient popu- 
lation. The sagacity of Alexander is apparent in the site 
of the city, which with its safe and commodious harbor on 
the Mediterranean, and its ample harbor on the lake Mareo- 
tis, on the south, then fed by canals from the Nile, monopo- 
lized the rising commerce of Europe, as well as that of 
Ethiopia, Arabia, and the Indies. The convenient fiction 
of a dream -sufficed to impart to his sagacity the reputation 
of a divine prescience. 

So rapid was the growth of the city, that at the com- 



10 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

mencement of the Christian era, it was " second only to 
Rome itself," and " comprehended a circumference of fifteen 
miles " within its walls. It was a great seat of commerce. 
"Idleness was unknown. Either sex, and every age, was 
engaged in the pursuits of industry;" — the blowing of glass, 
the weaving of linen, manufacturing the papyrus, or con- 
ducting the lucrative trade of the port.* Alexander, fresh 
from the conquest of Tyre, boasted that he would here build 
an emporium of commerce surpassing that which he had 
ruined, and thus would recreate in his own image the world 
he had destroyed. The site of Alexandria, more felicitous 
than that of Tyre, promised to realize his ambitious dream. 
Its gates " looked out on the gilded barges of the Nile, on 
fleets at sea under full sail, on a harbor that sheltered 
navies, and a light-house that was the mariner's star, and 
the wonder of the world." f 

But neither the felicity of its location, nor the enterprise 
of its Ptolemaic rulers, nor the wealth of its commerce, nor 
the learning that gathered to its schools the students of art, 
of philosophy, of medicine, of science, and of religion, could 
withstand the march of empire from Asia to Europe, nor 
the laws of trade that followed in its track. 

It was the ambition of Mohammed Ali to restore Alexan- 
dria to its ancient rank as a seaport, and to make it the real 
capital of Egypt. For this purpose he dug a canal to 
connect it with the Nile, thus reopening the communication 
that the sands of the desert had filled up ; through the old 
buildings and the rubbish of centuries, he opened new 
streets, making them straight, wide, and rectangular, after 
the manner of modern European cities ; he encouraged the 
building of a railroad from Alexandria to Cairo ; he made 
improvements in the modern harbor, which lies to the west 

* Gibbon. t Campbell. 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 11 

of tlie ancient port, — the island of Pharos, now annexed 
to the main land, jutting as a promontory between the 
old and the new, and still serving as a landmark to the 
mariner. 

But the improvements of Mohammed Ali were made by 
the force of one despotic will, and not by the intelligent 
progress of the people ; and though they have restored to 
Alexandria something of its former commercial activity, 
many years must elapse before their benefits will be fully 
realized by the sluggish natives. 

The present population of Alexandria is somewhat less 
than one hundred thousand, — a mixture of' all African and 
oriental races, with many Europeans, though the Jews have 
dwindled to about a thousand, where they once counted a 
hundred times that number, and where the Seventy made 
the Greek version of the Old Testament at the time when 
" salvation was of the Jews." Both they and their former 
oppressors are in the lowest degradation. • In the city where 
the eloquent Apollos was born, and where the learned and 
astute Athanasius conducted his theological controversies, 
where Theodosius by imperial edict destroyed the temple 
of Serapis, and publicly inaugurated Christianity in place 
of the outcast divinities of the Egyptian Greeks, — Chris- 
tianity is now represented by a Greek church, a Roman 
Catholic church, and a chapel pertaining to the Church of 
England. A beautiful edifice for the latter is building upon 
the Frank Square, in the Romanesque style, which I should 
be glad to see more generally copied in the United States, in 
preference to the Gothic. 

In roaming the narrow and dirty streets of the modern 
city, now occupied with a motley and poverty-stricken popu- 
lation, in traversing the villages of hovels within the walls, 
where the Arab hes down with his sheep, his goat, his dog, 
and his donkey, in a mud inclosure of a few feet square 



12 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

whicli must be entered by stooping, and in climbing the 
buge mounds, in part overgrown witb date-palms, tbat are 
said to cover tlie ancient capital, it is difficult to realize tbat 
bere was a scbool to which the sages of Greece resorted for 
instruction in philosophy, in science, and in letters, and 
where Jewish Rabbis and Christian apologists vied with 
Greek diaj.ecticians in the various pursuits of learning ; and 
that here was a library of seven hundred thousand manu- 
script volumes, — a British Museum or a Smithsonian Insti- 
tute boasting the originals or the duplicates of many of the 
most valuable works of the then current literature, — and 
which, after the accidental destruction of a part of it in the 
insurrection against Julius Caesar, and the wilful destruction 
of another portion in the sanguinary religious wars under 
Theodosius, yet contained enough of written papyrus to 
heat for six months the four thousand baths of the city, 
under the summary decree of Omar ; — "If these writings 
of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are use- 
less, and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they are 
pernicious, and ought to be destroyed." It is difficult amid 
such surroundings, to realize that here Ceesar and Antony 
dallied with the charms of Cleopatra. It is difficult to 
realize that where now bigotry, fanaticism, and superstition 
hold sway over an ignorant and degraded people, were 
schools of theology, and learned fathers, and astute contro- 
versialists of the early Christian church ; that here Chris- 
tianity triumphed over Paganism in popular tumults backed 
by imperial decrees ; that here Mark preached the gospel 
of the kingdom where the Ethiopian eunuch had preceded 
him with the tidings of the great salvation. 

And yet that old Alexandria, which began to be in the 
fourth century before Christ, and of all whose palaces and 
temples and monuments only two columns are now standing, 
was the youngest of Egyptian cities, and was built by the 



ALEXANDRIA', ANCIENT AND MODERN. 13 

conqueror of Egypt when Thebes, and Memphis, and the 
university city of Heliopolis, were already in their decline. 
Such is the antiquity that meets us at the threshold of the 
land of the Nile. 

The most interesting modern building in Alexandria, 
indeed the only one worthy of notice, is the palace of Mo- 
hammed Ali. This stands upon the old Pharos, now united, 
as I have already said, to the main land by a causeway. 
The exterior of the palace has no architectural pretension, 
but in the style and furniture of the interior it is a model 
of simple elegance, surpassing the palaces of England, of 
France, and of Italy, in true richness and taste. It com- 
bines the best points of the oriental and the occidental styles. 
Instead of walls all bedizened with gold leaf, and tawdry 
mirrors and pictures such as one sees at Windsor, here are 
walls covered with the richest silk, of subdued color and 
tasteful patterns, and ceilings of a hard and beautiful finish, 
unbedecked with gaudy and indecent frescoes ; floors of 
pohshed wood, inlaid, or exhibiting the grain in beautiful 
combinations, tables of rich mosaic, every thing in keeping 
"We all pronounced it the most beautiful palace we had seen. 
The balcony commands a fine view of the harbor — just such 
a view as enchanted Alexander and determined him here to 
found a city, — and the garden affords a choice collection 
of fruits and flowers, and is enlivened by a multitude of 
songsters of every hue. As the present Pasha resides at 
Cairo, this palace is only used occasionally for the entertain- 
ment of a passing Pasha. 

A view of Alexandria would be incomplete without a visit 
to the slave market, which still exists here in open day. 
The market is an inclosed area of about one hundred feet 
square, with rows of cells upon three sides, in which the 
slaves are kept until a purchaser is found for them. They 
are not kept in close confinement, but may go from cell to 
2 



14 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

cell, and have the range of the yard. Several are huddled 
together into one apartment, and eat and sleep upon the 
naked ground. There were but a few slaves in the market, 
and these were principally women and children. The 
children, too young to comprehend their condition, seemed 
happy as children are everywhere, but the adults wore an 
air of extreme dejection and misery. One in particular 
interested me exceedingly. She was a Nubian girl of about 
sixteen, jet black, with coarse features, and hair twisted into 
coils that stretched across her head about an inch apart, and 
resembled a rope mat; her only clothing was a piece of blue 
cotton cloth not made into a garment, which hung from one 
shoulder about her waist to her knees ; she was stout and 
hearty, but her countenance was as sad as any I ever looked 
upon, and in her nakedness and degradation she showed the 
native modesty of woman, by shrinking from the presence 
of strangers into the den allotted to her. I asked her price, 
and was told she could be put-chased for $100. Perchance 
she was the daughter of some Nubian chief whose misfor- 
tunes in war had doomed his family to slavery ; no doubt 
she had a home^ however rude, — perhaps father, mother, 
brothers, sisters — from which she had been torn away for 
ever. Slave hunting is still carried on in Nubia and Abys- 
smia, and the slave-trade is still active upon the Nile. The 
principal market is Cairo. No Georgians or Circassians 
are brought to Alexandria, but these are still to be had at 
Cairo. Our guide informed us, however, that Enghsh gen- 
tlemen — whom he supposed us to be — would not be 
allowed to see them, '' because English don't want to buy." 
Had he known the price demanded for the Edmonson girls 
in the United States, he might have thought dijfferently of 
the marketable qualities of some fair Circassian in the eyes 
of some Americans. Ah, but to buy these girls here and 
carry them to America, would be piracy by the laws of the 



ALEXANDRIA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 15 

United States ; and so it is a felony condemned by all 
nations, to steal them from their homes and transport them 
to Alexandria or to Cairo to be sold ; but if they could only 
be smuggled into the slave market in that other Alexandria, 
and sold to some lustful planter in Georgia or Louisiana, 
or to some brute in Arkansas, — why, that, is quite another 
matter ! But is not the slave-trade as much a crime upon 
the Mississippi as upon the Nile ; at Alexandria on the 
Potomac as at Alexandria on the Mediterranean ? It is a 
greater crime there, where there is greater light, and where 
the slavery is made tenfold worse than anywhere in the 
East. The respectable and devout Mussulman who attended 
us to the slave market, told us that before he took up the 
profession of a dragoman, he used to buy his own people in 
Nubia and bring them to Alexandria for sale. He had 
given up the business, not for moral but for pecuniary 
reasons. I did not see but his conscience stood as well in 
the matter as the conscience of a certain Presbyterian elder, 
who sent his female servant — a member of the Baptist 
church — to the slave market in Alexandria to be sold to 
the far South. I would not take it upon me to judge either, 
or to draw the line between the Mohammedan and the 
Christian ! 

Returning froni the market, it was grateful to see a 
hospital tended by the Sisters of Charity, where the sick and 
the famishing of every age may find nourishment, medicine, 
and succor. I noticed some of the Sisters dressing the sores 
of beggars, and others ministering to the necessities of 
children. If they may do good in Alexandria, why not some 
Protestant missionary also ? A second Dr. Parker, who 
should relieve the ophthalmia here universally prevalent, 
might also open the eyes of some spiritually blind. I do 
not know, however, that the relief of blindness would be 
considered a favor by a people of whom multitudes have put 



16 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

out their right eje in order to avoid conscription for the 
army. Many too for the same reason have cut off the fore- 
finger of the right hand. The sight of sore-eyed children 
here is most distressing ; that of sore-eyed men and women 
everywhere is as disgusting. 

I see not why Alexandria would not be a hopeful mis- 
sionary field, for one who would labor quietly among the 
foreign population. Incidentally a few Mohammedans might 
be reached. I asked the guide who showed us about the 
city, why our dragoman, who has renounced Mohammedan- 
ism for Christianity, had not had his head taken off; — -his 
reply was, " The governor does not know, and nobody 
knows " — meaning nobody will tell. Perhaps a silent work 
of grace might go forward here, as in Tuscany, even in face 
of the penalty of death. 



CHAPTER II. 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. DONKEYS, COOKS, 

MARKETING. 

With the thei'mometer at sixty in the middle of January, 
and a good mosquito-net to keep oflf intruders, one could 
have slept well even upon an indifferent bed, but for the 
barking of the dogs, and the loud dismal cry of the pohce, 
who in challenging each other's wakefulness contrive to keep 
everybody else awake. But sleep or no sleep we must be 
up early for the great business of the day. 

A visit to the banker — usually about the first call to be 
made in every place — supplies the lack of a "Broker's 
Board " by the practical discovery that exchange and com- 
missions are here from three to five per cent., though 
nominally but one ! I never yet saw a banker who charged 
on paper more than one per cent., and yet through the 
thimble-rigging of j^iastres, I somehow never get but about 
nineteen pounds sterling on a draft of twenty. The facihty 
with which a pound which is worth ninety-seven piastres in 
the banker's reckoning on paper, becomes worth a hundred 
and one or more piastres when he pays it over to you in 
discharge of said reckoning, would elicit the applause of 
Signor Blitz — provided he were not the victim. The 
money transaction settled, the next thing is to arrange for 
a voyage up the Nile. The little steamboat of the Transit 
Company will not leave until the 16th — and that will be 
the Sabbath, — so we decide to take a dahaheeh ; and since 
2* 



18 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

there is little cliance of a steamboat from Cairo up the Nile, 
we conclude to make our contract from Alexandria to 
Thebes. And now the all-important business of selecting a 
boat and laying in a store of provisions for a six weeks' 
voyage, must receive immediate attention. 

It is surprising of how much importance one becomes in 
an eastern city, if he has any business to transact, or any 
money to spend, or if he even holes as if he had either. 
If you step into the street you are instantly surrounded by 
donkey boys, each recommending his own animal, and abso- 
lutely thrusting him upon you. I counted ten right about 
me at the door of the hotel, blocking up the passage and 
even forcing their way into the court, so that it was only by 
main strength that I could get into the street. "Wherever 
you go, a troop of donkeys is taggling after you. Then if 
you stop to make a purchase, a score of persons gather 
round to witness the whole transaction, watching every 
motion, giving their opinion, and especially scrutinizing the 
coin offered in payment. These are persons who have no 
connection with the seller of the goods, mere idlers or 
passers-by, or persons looking for a job in the way of 
carrying home the articles purchased, in their baskets or on 
their heads, or by directing you to some other shop. It is a 
great evil in Italy, in Malta, and in Egypt, that in the poorer 
classes the common charities and courtesies of life are 
extinguished by the hope of gain ; so that one will not 
answer you the simplest question, tell you the name of a 
street, the way to the post-office, to the bank, to your hotel, 
without teasing you by actions or by words for a reward. 
How different from France, where the humblest person will 
do you a favor with evident satisfaction, and without looldng 
for compensation! Commend me to the French people, 
above any I have yet seen, for true kindness of heart and 
inbred politeness. 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. 19 

The persistent donkey-boys followed us in hope of an 
hour's employment for their beasts, and as we found that 
our tour of inspection would carry us a mile or two along 
the canal, we were no longer indifferent to their importunity. 
My first attempt at donkey-riding was a decided failure ; the 
poor brute's saddle-girth was not fast, and no sooner was my 
weight upon the stirrup than over went rider, saddle, and 
accoutrements into the mud. Such a fall from a horse might 
have been of some consequence ; but from a donkey two 
and a half feet high, it was as ludicrous as it was provoking, 
especially as the insignificant creature himself regarded it 
with the most profound simplicity. It was, however, a great 
event to the other donkey-boys, who at once clustered around 
me, crying, "That bad donkey; here good donkey, good 
saddle." I was soon astride of another, and our cavalcade 
moved gaily forward. Each donkey is followed by a driver, 
and obeys his orders instead of his rider's. "When you are 
walking or gently trotting, an unseen thrust of the driver's 
stick into the donkey's haunches almost jerks you from 
your saddle as the poor beast jumps to quicken his pace, 
and again at the top of his speed, a pull at his tail brings him 
and you to a dead halt. 

The natives have a knack of guiding the beast with their 
heels ; but he never minds the bridle, and you have nothing 
to do but to look out for yourself, especially when in some 
narrow or crowded street he brings you into the predicament 
into which Balaam's ass brought his master. The pace of a 
donkey is generally a very pleasant amble, and he is such a 
patient and docile little creature that he would make a 
desirable addition to the sports of children in our country 
villages. 

While awaiting the arrival of the owner of a boat, we 
sauntered in the garden of an English gentleman whose 
villa borders upon the canal, where, besides the rich aroma 



20 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

and the gauay hues of flowers of every clime, the ample 
shade of sycamores and acacias, and the luscious vista of 
orange groves, we enjoyed the more famihar vegetable 
growths that, excepting in the season, reminded us of home. 
An oriental garden such as this covers hundreds of acres, 
and is a compendium of the whole vegetable kingdom. At 
this season, tomatoes, peas, beans, celery, cabbages, cauH- 
flowers, radishes, turnips, together with vegetables peculiar 
to the country, are ripe and abundant for the market. 

Having concluded a bargain for a boat, we had a donkey 
race back to the hotel, at the close of which we found our- 
selves debtors to the extent of twelve and a half cents each, 
for animals which with their drivers had been in attendance 
upon us for four hours. 

January 12. — The boat engaged, the next thing was to 
fit it up with the utmost expedition. Ours was furnished 
with every requisite for the voyage excepting provisions ; — 
beds, bedding, tables, chairs, kitchen utensils, table furniture, 
to be supplied by the owner, we to provide our own cook, 
our own fuel, and our own food. This is upon the whole 
the best arrangement — better than to take an unfurnished 
boat and have the trouble and responsibility of fitting it up 
at short notice, and better than to have your dragoman 
provide for you at so much a day, because it allows you to 
live as you list. The first item was to engage a cook, and 
as I had been designated to the post of commissary-general, 
it devolved upon me to examine the credentials of sundry 
candidates. Our choice rested upon one recommended by a 
recent French traveller, " egalement pour son exactitude, sa 
bonne volonte, et ses talens culinaires;" — promptness, good- 
nature, and culinary talent, were three capital qualities in a 
cuisinier ; — but I was attracted to him also by liis name, 
made up of two that I hold in great respect — Ihrahimj 
Abraham, and Sulliman, pronounced SilUman ; and if his 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. 21 

skill in dietetic chemistry shall prove him at all worthy 
of his illustrious scientific cognomen, we shall have every 
reason to be satisfied with our culinary professor. He is 
modest and respectful, and unlike many of his countrymen 
has two sound and very beautiful eyes ! Other things being 
equal, it is, desirable that your cook should be "good- 
looking," and I hereby give our professor a certificate to' 
that effect. The item of cleanliness was not overlooked, 
including an inspection of the digital extremities. For 
wages we offered a hundred and fifty piastres — about $7.50 
a month ; Ibraham wanted two hundred — $10. "We com- 
promised by engaging him at the first sum, with the promise 
of two pounds sterling if he should give satisfaction — and 
especially if he should prove apt in following any instruc- 
tions- of the lady of our party — and the threat of dismissal 
at Cairo, if he should prove untidy or incompetent ; to all 
which Ibrahim meekly and gratefully assented. From that 
instant the culinary professor was my devoted attendant ; 
in .all my purchases he followed me like a shadow ; looking 
reverently into my eyes, catching every sign, touching his 
hand to his lips and to his forehead ; in short, showing all 
proper regard for the newly-inaugurated Hawagee. 

The cook engaged, the dragoman — a native Egyptian 
who had been in the service of one of the party from 
London — accompanied me to lay in stores. Knowing the 
adhesive property of money in an Arab's fingers, we did not 
dare to trust him to make the purchases alone. It was a 
new responsibility to calculate how much would be required 
to sustain a party of four persons, or rather six, including 
the dragoman and the culinary professor, for a six weeks' 
voyage. Mutton, fowls, affd occasionally milk, eggs, butter, 
and vegetables, might from time to time be procured at 
villages along the way ; but groceries and delicacies no- 
where except at Cairo, four days distant. Much of the 



22 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

trade of Alexandria is in the hands of French and Italian 
merchants — there are few English, — and in dealing with 
these there was nothing novel. But for many articles it 
was necessary to go to the Egyptian bazaar, a quarter con- 
sisting of narrow and dirty streets lined on both sides with 
little stalls, and of one or two squares where goods are 
displayed in the open air by scores of natives sitting upon 
stones or divans, pipe in hand. It had rained hard in the 
morning, as is usual at Alexandria at this season, and the 
mud was of the consistency of Broadway mud without the 
relief of a side-walk. 

Besides the more substantial and bulky articles, our list 
comprised all manner of fruits, fresh and dried, sauces, 
pickles, and preserves, ham, tongues, etc. etc. To a taste 
formed upon the Philadelphia market, and exercised uj^on 
the dairies of Orange county, butter was the most difficult 
article to be supplied. The best quality of butter in Egypt, 
as in Italy, is made without salt ; — this can be got at 
intervals along the Nile. A second quality for cooking, is 
made by melting down all sorts of butter to the consistency 
of lard or of carriage grease. I went to the stall of a 
venerable Arab who sat cross-legged among jars of butter 
and oil, and empty jars for the accommodation of custoni- 
ers. His butter was the best in market, and to assure nie 
of its good quality, he took up a wooden ladle filled with 
the grease, bit off a large mouthful, smacked his lips, and 
dipped the ladle in again to fill my jar. Each time the 
ladle came out, his great greasy fingers that had just been 
in oil, were used to scrape it clean, and when the scales 
were emptied he scooped u]) what remained with his fingers 
and wiped them upon my jar, aftd then sucked them in his 
mouth. The termination of this disgusting process so 
moved my risibles that he observed it, laughed also, and 
repeated the motion. I told him that was not American ; 



PREPARATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. 23 

to which he replied through the dragoman, that " an 
Egyptian eats with his whole heart, and does not look at 
every thing as if he was afraid to put it in his mouth ! " 

In Alexandria almost every thing is sold by weight, — 
the olca, which weighs about three pounds, being the com- 
mon standard. Oil, vinegar, and even wine, are sold by 
the oka ; salt is sold in blocks, by weight. Flour of a good 
quality is dear, and so are potatoes, both being imported 
from Europe. The Egyptian flour is commonly dark and 
rank, and makes a coarse black bread. The potatoe is 
little used in southern Europe, in Egypt, or in Asia. Good 
tea is scarce and dear in Alexandria, and the traveller had 
better bring this from Malta. The native sugar of Egypt 
is good enough for common purposes, and is comparatively 
cheap. But the prices of "all articles of food are steadily 
advancing in Egypt, in consequence of the increase of 
travel, and the stories of the extraordinary cheapness 
of living here, so far as travellers are concerned, will soon 
be classed with other oriental legends. 

A store of charcoal and wood was necessary. This was 
to be obtamed, not as in New York at docks or yards 
appropriated to storing fuel, but at little shops about eight 
feet square, in streets about as many feet in width. The 
vender, of wood had his stock cut up into small pieces 
which he sold by the oka ; and if a stick chanced to be too 
large or too long, he delibei*ately squatted down upon his 
haunches, laid it upon a little block before him, and hewed 
it down to a smaller compass. He had also little bundles 
of pitch pine splinters for kindling-wood. The wood I 
bought weighed altogether about a hundred and fifty 
pounds, and cost fifty cents ; it was thrown into a large 
basket — such as are used for packing dates — and one 
of the supernumeraries already mentioned, took it upon his 
back, and carrying the rope around his forehead, marched 
off with it to the boat. 



24 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Nutmegs are cheap in this market — only two cents 
apiece, — and large, fresh, sweet, luscious oranges, that have 
ripened on the tree, can be bought for fifty cents the 
hundred. At an orange merchant's I witnessed the per- 
sistency of a Mussulman in his devotions. The old man 
with a gray beard, knew doubtless that a customer stood 
before his door — indeed I was at his very side ; but it was 
his hour of prayer, and he stood facing the East with rapt 
attention, gazing upon vacancy, and muttering with incon- 
ceivable rapidity, then prostrated himself upon his knees, 
then kissed the ground, then rose and muttered again, then 
down upon his knees and thence to the ground, and so on 
in endless repetition. I never entered a Catholic church in 
Europe but all eyes were turned from beads and altars and 
breviaries, — and often too the eyes of priests and their 
attendants, — to regard the stranger; but this Mussulman 
did not once turn his eyes from the imaginary point upon 
which they were fixed, until he had finished his devotions, 
though he ran the risk of losing a bargain. The dragoman 
warned me not to speak to him, for if he should chance to 
reply, " he would have to do it all over again." 

A dealer in comfortables, afforded a good specimen of 
oriental trading as it was before the innovations of the 
Franks. He was a man of fifty, in good condition, wore a 
handsome turban, a long white jacket with blue bands, 
gathered in ample folds about his waist, white loose 
trowsers, leggings, sandals, and a long flowing scarf. His 
shop, like the rest, was about eight feet square ; he sat in 
one corner by the door, cross-legged upon a mat, smoking 
a long pipe, the bowl of which rested in a pan of ashes, 
and sipping a tiny cup of jet black coffee, without sugar or 
milk, while a little tin pot of the same beverage was steam- 
ing at his side. When we stopped at his door, or rather in 
front of the shop, for the whole front was open to the street, 



PREPAEATIONS FOR THE VOYAGE. 25 

he very deliberately handed his pipe and cup to his servant 
who stood behind him, then rose and handed us the article 
for which we inquired. His entire stock amounted to three 
comforters, three baskets of cotton, and half a dozen small 
articles of bedding. After we had made our examination 
and comments, he resumed his deliberate attitude as if quite 
indifferent to the result. 

The offer of a sovereign in payment of our purchase, led 
to a general consultation among the bystanders. It was 
passed from hand to hand, stared over gravely, and its 
value computed in piastres, when lo, it proved that the 
whole assembled company could not change the piece, and 
I was obliged to borrow silver of the dragoman. The money 
of all countries is current in Egypt ; Spanish doubloons, 
English sovereigns, French Napoleons, dollars Spanish, 
Austrian, American, Neapolitan, besides the money of 
Constantinople, — the currency of the country being exceed- 
ingly ill-regulated. It is a great perplexity to a stranger 
to reduce all these to their valuation in piastres (five cent 
pieces), and almost equally so to small shopkeepers, the 
limited extent of whose resources is illustrated by the 
fact that I seldom found one who was able to change a 



CHAPTER III. 

THE EMBARKATION — MAHMOODe'eH CANAL— THE NILE. 

We had searched everywhere for an American flag, but 
without success ; but at length, just on the eve of starting, 
we found a tailor who eno;a^ed to make one in two hours 
for six dollars. As its size would not admit of the entire 
constellation, we inserted the " glorious old thirteen," which 
would serve to remind us at once of the original States, and 
also, by '"'the digits reversed," of the present number. 
This flag was voted to the Commissary-General as his 
perquisite. 

It had occurred to us that good Yankee gingerbread 
v/ould not be amiss upon the Nile ; but neither ginger nor 
" treacle " could be found except at a chemist's, prepared 
for medical uses ; — the ginger at twenty-five cents an 
ounce, and the treacle at the same price per pound. I paid 
a dollar for about three pints of this luxury. 

Being duly fortified with consular and Turkish passports, 
— which, without being in the least required by the govern- 
ment, are forced upon the traveller by a copartnership 
of the consuls and the local authorities for the plunder 
of travellers, — the party proceeded to the boat in a car- 
riage with the exception of the dragoman and myself, who 
remained to marshal the cavalcade of provisions. And a 
most imposing cavalcade it was. Two long, low, narrow 
wagons, with wheels about eighteen inches in diameter, 
driven by swarthy men in long frocks and red caps, carried 



THE embarkation; mahmoode'eh canal. 27 

the major part of the stores. These were preceded by 
a Janissary, or more properly a Caw ass, mounted on a 
donkey; he was dressed m a blue frock reachmg to his 
knees, loose trowsers gathered about his calves, neat 
leggings and sandals, and a red cap with a black tassel ; a 
long, crooked sword dangled at his side ; he was a fine 
looking man, and regarded the whole cavalcade with a most 
complacent air. Next followed the writer on a donkey, in 
the capacity of Commissary- General ; then the two wagons, 
one of them mounted by a stout Nubian in smock and 
turban, — who was an oificer of the customs, and without 
whom we could not pass the gate, — and flanked by sundry 
boys and men, caiTymg parcels, or testifying their interest 
in the movement; and the rear was brought up by our 
dragoman and the culinary professor, both mounted on 
donkeys and wearing red caps. The donkey boys ran after 
us, and as we approached the canal, we put their speed to 
the test, so as to bring up in proper style before the boat. 
On the way my attention was arrested by a continuous 
murmuring and wailing sound, which j^roceeded from sev- 
eral parties of Mohammedans in the burial ground, repeat- 
ing prayers for the dead, according to their custom upon 
Friday of each week. 

Dashing by Pompey's Pillar, we were presently at the 
place of embarkation upon the Mahmoodeeh canal, which 
was to bear us to the Nile forty miles distant. 

Everybody knows the story of this canal. It. was 
opened in 1820. Its construction was a part of the scheme 
of Mohammed Ali for reviving the commerce of Alexan- 
dria with the East. Taking as a base the old canal of 
Fooah, which was yet in use in the time of the Venetians, 
and following in part the ancient Canopic branch of the 
Nile, he opened a communication of forty miles between 
Alexandria and Atfeh on the Rosetta branch. An army 



28 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of two hundred and fifty thousand persons was gathered to 
dig this canal, the dirt being scooped out by the hand or 
with a common hoe, and all removed in sacks or baskets 
carried on the shoulders ; and so miserable was the pro- 
vision of food, clothing, and shelter for this multitude of 
laborers, and so severe were the daily tasks exacted of 
them, that " no less than twenty thousand are said to have 
perished by accidents, hunger, and plague." It was the 
counterpart of the old scenes of brickmaking among the 
Israelites in bondage. The will of the tyrant made the 
lives of his subjects as the dirt beneath his feet. 

The dead level of the canal presents nothing of interest. 
A sail of a few hours brings us to the Nile. And now we 
are fairly afloat upon the most historical, the most fertiliz- 
ing, the most wonderful fiver of the world. Just here, at 
this season — when the waters are receding toward their 
lowest level — it is about half a mile wide ; its banks are 
low and unrelieved by mounds or trees ; its waters are 
muddy, and its current swift ; and its commerce is limited 
to boats of thirty or forty tons laden with cotton and wheat 
for Alexandria. But what a dreamy atmosphere is this; 
bland, bright, pure, dry, the thermometer at nearly seventy 
in the shade ; what a soil is this, ten, twelve, twenty feet 
deep of rich black alluvial deposit, covering even the 
borders of the desert with fertility; what an illimitable 
extent of field without fence or tree or any landmark, 
clothed with the richest verdure, — the springing wheat, 
the fresh and fragrant clover, — or upturned by recent 
plowing to the cheerful sun; what vast herds of cattle, 
mingled with flocks of goats and sheep, the patient donkey 
and the lazy camel stretched upon the sward ; what mul- 
titudes of birds making the air vocal with their song, 
skimming the surface of the water, and alighting with 
pleasing confidence upon the deck of our vessel; what 



THE NILE. 29 

numbers of boats descending broadside with the current, now 
swell the commerce of the Nile to the flat-boat commerce 
of the Mississippi ; how picturesque those villages scattered 
along the banks, shielded by strong levees from the swift and 
changeful current ; adorned with tall and graceful palms, 
through which the minaret peeps like the spire of a distant 
church ; their round mud houses resembling from a distance 
the towers and bastions of a fort, and the bazaar with its 
little grove of sycamores, like the garden walk of a king ; 
how majestic is this flood, now widening to a sea, now 
sweeping through some new made channel and depositing 
fresh acres upon the opposite bank, ever rolling its alluvial 
wealth from Nubia to the delta; — from Noah to Moses, 
from Moses to Herodotus and Strabo, from Herodotus and 
Strabo until now, the same mighty ceaseless river, whose 
banks have been the h^me of patriarchs and the burial- 
place of kings, the seat of empire and its grave, the 
treasure-house and the mausoleum of Learning and of Art. 
This is the Nile, the rich, the glorious Nile. No wonder 
that more than two thousand years ago the king of Egypt, 
lying hke a dragon in the midst of his rivers, said, " My 
river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." * No 
wonder that in an age when all blessings were symbolized 
by objects of worship, the gigantic form of Nilus pouring 
forth his floods was the adoration of Egypt. 

I am on the Nile ; let me dream awhile of its gorgeous 
Past, before I look upon its desolated Present. The shrill 
cadence of the Muezzin call from yonder minaret, has died 
away ; the bark of the village dogs has ceased ; the monoto- 
nous song of the boatmen is ended ; the water ripples gently 
against the vessel's side, and the young moon steals through 
my curtain, as I lie down to sleep upon the bosom of the 
Nile. 

* Ezekiel xxix. 3. 
3* 



30 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Before me opens the Egypt of four thousand years. I 
walk with the patriarch of Mamre upon the plains of 
Mizraim ; I tread with awe the city of Menes, the first 
of Egypt's kings — the city Abraham saw, now flanked 
with its stupendous pyramids, and guarded by its mysterious 
sphinx; from Noph I turn toward On, and through the 
vista of forty centuries behold the mighty temple of the 
Sun ; amid these monuments I meet the youthful shepherd, 
brought as a captive to the house of Pharaoh ; I see him 
in his dungeon cheered with heavenly visions ; I see him 
in his chariot of state, the head of all the realm ; I behold 
his venerable father meeting his long-lost son ; I see the 
long funereal tram that bears the bones of Jacob to the 
grave of his fathers ; I see the land of Goshen teeming 
with flocks and herds, and peopled with the seed of Abra- 
ham ; I behold the spreading power of the Pharaohs, and 
their oppression of the chosen of the Lord; I hear the 
groaning of the people from the sweltering plains ; I see 
the infant Moses floating on the Nile in his bark of reeds ; 
I follow him through all the wealth and pomp of Pharaoh's 
court, into the grand and solemn wilderness of Sinai, till as 
the leader of an emancipated nation, he begins the march 
from the delta of the Nile, to the Red Sea and the Jordan ; 
I behold the envious and maddened monarch struggling 
with ■ the returning waves ; — the moon expires, and dark- 
ness comes over Egypt so thick that it can be felt ; — my 
boat sails onward up the Nile : I pass by Denderah and its 
zodiac of Ptolemaic origin, and now I stand before the city 
of the hundred gates ; its twenty thousand chariots of war 
are gathered in the plain to defy the invading hosts of 
Persia ; Karnak looms grandly through its avenue of 
sphinxes and its propylon of obelisks and statues, and the 
colossi raised in rude majesty above the plain, from their 
seats assert the empire of the world ; the Father of song 



THE NILE. 31 

here gathers fresh numbers for his great epic ; the Father 
of history here gathers the treasured learning of ,the past ; 
the wealth, the grandeur, the power of the world's kingdoms' 
concentrated thus near its source, now fill the panorama 
of the Nile ; — my boat heads onward to Syene — but 
Memnon answers to the Sun — and my dream is broken. 

The dream is broken, for inore mournful than the Muez- 
zin cry comes the voice of the prophet over the abyss 
of time, " Behold I am against thee and against thy rivers, 
and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and 
desolate, from the tower of Syene even to the border 
of Ethiopia .... It shall be the basest of the kingdoms ; 
neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations ; 
for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over 
the nations."* I look out upon a little mud village, so 
picturesque from a distance, and find it the abode of filth, 
and squalor, and poverty; the children naked and lying 
with the dogs ; the miserable representatives of a fallen 
race mixed with the race of their conquerors, without 
knowledge, without energy, without ambition, held in the 
iron grasp of Fatalism, and making it a religious virtue to 
abide in the degradation to which they are born ; — dimin- 
ished in numbers, impoverished, enslaved, indeed '-^ the 
basest of the kingdoms." 

* Ezekiel xxix. 10, 15. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NILE COMFORTS ; A NILE BOAT AND CEEW. 

" O MY eyes ! O my love ! O the sun ! O the moon ! 
O my father ! O my mother ! O my sister ! the river ! 
O the pilgrimage to Mecca ! O the procession of the 
Sultan ! O the prophet ! O the Effendi ! O Abbas Pasha! 
O Mohammed ! The hawagee (travellers) are with us ! 
"We are going up the Nile ! " 

Such is the senseless song with which our Arab boatmen 
divert themselves in endless repetition. When laboring 
at the oar, the reis (captain) leads in each invocation, and 
the crew keep time with a chorus, which, translated into 
English, signifies " Pull, pull away ; " when lolling about 
the deck, while the wind carries the boat forward, they sing 
it all together, in an unvarying round ; and at evening they 
gather on the deck, and with the accompaniment of a rude 
tambourine and a reed fife, clapping their palms as in an 
ecstasy of joy, at every sentiment, they repeat forever- 
more, " my eyes, and my love, and my father, and my 
mother, and my sister, and the river, and the sun, and the 
moon, and Mecca, and the Sultan, and Mohammed ! " * 

I think I could suggest a variation that would at least 
have the merit of appealing to the feelings of the hawagee. 
It would run somewhat after this style : " the fleas ! O 

* The range of this chorus is represented by a yery few notes, used 
also as a religious chant. The Captain intones the invocation, and the 
crew respond at every pause. [See music in Appendix.] 



NILE COMFORTS. 33 

the mosquitoes ! the bugs ! O the spiders ! O the flies ! 
O the cockroaches ! O the wood-lice ! the ants ! O the 
earwigs ! " the rats ! the braying of the donkeys ! O 
the barking of the dogs ! Oo-oo-oh ! the fleas ! O Moham- 
med ! the hawagee are going up the Nile ! " Yet it would 
be a profanation to sing such a song — so animal — so 
earthly — on this celestial night upon the Nile. The sun 
has just dipped behind the apex of the great pyramid, 
which, for four thousand years, has watched his daily 
decline, and gathered his last rays from the sands of the 
Lybian Desert ; and now the full moon silvers the rippling 
surface of the river, as our bark skims over it before the 
wind. The atmosphere is perfectly transparent, and, like 
the sky of Italy, it has a liquid depth that lures the soul 
onward and upward to the infinite. Nay, such a sky does 
not shine on Italy, — so pure, so serene, so resplendent in 
the radiance of its stars, and the groupings of its constel- 
lations. Nor is there in all Europe such a river to give 
back her lustre to the moon. After all, in keeping with 
this glorious scene is that closing cadence of the boatman's 
song, mvoking all that to the rude Arab is praiseworthy : 
" ! the sun, and the moon, and the river, and the Sultan, 
and Mohammed!" So " WuUuhhee hal^-saw/" — we are 
going up the Nile. 

Our boat is a cross between a sloop and a canal boat. 
It is about seventy feet long and eighteen wide at its 
greatest breadth, and would measure between thirty and 
forty tons. From stern to midships is a raised or poop 
cabin, which is divided into several compartments. The 
rear-most, a room ' about seven feet square, is the sanctum 
of the worthy couple who have domesticated our journey 
from Paris hither ; next to this is a space of nearly equal 
dimensions, occupied by a wash-room, dressing-room, and 
pantry ; then comes cabin No. 2, seven feet by fifteen, upon 



34 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

the opposite sides of which, behind curtains of coarse 
cotton cloth, the professor and myself assert our respective 
rights ; in front of this, and facing the deck, is another 
cabin, six feet by sixteen, which serves as dining and sitting 
room. These cabins are furnished on both sides with 
double sets of sashes, glass and Venetian, and the dining- 
room is lighted also from the front. Beyond the dining- 
room is a cushioned verandah two feet in width extending 
across the boat. Each cabin is furnished with divans — 
raised benches fastened to the sides of the boat — which 
serve as seats or lounges by day and are converted into 
beds at night. We have all manner of contrivances for 
writing and for stowing things compactly. 

The deck in front of the cabins, is occupied by the crew 
when working the boat, and also serves as the place for their 
meals and for their devotions. Below this is a shallow hold, 
not deep enough for a man to sit erect in it, where they stow 
themselves to sleep when the night is not warm enough for 
them to lie upon the open deck. In this also, the heavier 
stores of the company are kept. In the bow of the vessel is a 
neat little cubby for culinary purposes ; containing an oven 
and all sorts of miniature compartments for cooking with a 
thimble full of charcoal. Over this our newly inaugurated 
professor of dietetics has absolute control; and so satis- 
factorily have his " culinary talents " developed themselves, 
such is his punctuality, his docility, his neatness, and his 
skill, that I have already assured him of his £2 per month 
and of an engagement for the desert and for Palestine, and 
furthermore have volunteered to make honorable mention 
of him in a certain newspaper in New York ; whereat 
Ibrahim opens his eyes wonderingly, kisses his hand and 
touches his forehead, laughs till his eyes sparkle, again 
touches his hand to his lips and his forehead, and dishes 
up the breakfast " with alacrity." Favored indeed of the 



A NILE BOAT AND CREW. 35 

Prophet will that Hawagee be, whose palate is daily tempted 
from the caboose of Ibrahim Sulliman, and served by his 
faithful boy Mohammed. 

Our boat is rigged after a fashion never seen upon the 
Hudson. In the bow is an enormous lateen-sail,* fastened 
to a spar, which' is swung as upon a pivot on the top of a 
mast, some forty feet in height ; the spar is about a hundred 
feet long, and swings at an angle of forty-five degrees ; this 
position, and the facility of rotary motion bring the sail 
readily before the wind, so that it fills easily. In the stern 
of the boat is a sail similarly adjusted, but upon a much 
smaller scale. Here also is the tiller, which the helmsman 
manages from the top of the poop. Twelve banks of 
oars, and twelve huge poles pointed with iron to be used 
in shallow water, complete the equipment of the bark 
"Lotus" of Alexandria, bound for Thebes. From her 
flagstaff wave the stars and stripes, and from the forward 
mast the pennon of the senior member of the firm of 

"W , U , T , & Co., the charterers of this 

present expedition. The boat is manned by a reis (cap- 
tain), a •steersman, and twelve hands, making our entire 
company, including the dragoman and the professor culi- 
nary, twenty souls. 

An Arab crew is an interesting study. Ours is a mixture 
of all the races that inheritance or successive conquests 
have gathered upon the soil of Egypt. The reis hails from 
Keneh oj^posite the ancient Tentyra, and in the vicinity 
of Thebes. He is a slender, graceful man, of a dark 
copper color, with a keen eye, a pleasant expression, and a 
voice as musical as the Pope's at Vespers in the Sistine 

* " A ?aieew-sail is a triangular sail, extended by a long yard, ■which is 
swung about one quarter the distance from the lower end, which is brought 
down at the tack, while the other end is elevated at an angle of about 
forty-live degrees." — {Websta^) Ilaritime Diciionary. 



36 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

ctapel. He dresses riclily and in good taste, wears a 
tui'ban of red silk wreathed about a white skullcap, a white 
gown descending nearly to the knees and terminating in 
two loose bags fastened about the legs, and a striped silk 
waistcoat of gay colors, the back being of the same mate- 
rial. His kamees is frilled and filigreed upon the breast, 
and copiously adorned with buttons, and has Avide sleeves 
reaching below the elbows. When the weather is cool, he 
throws over all a flowing mantle of blue calico. He has 
not attained to the dignity of shoes, but goes with the legs 
bare from the knees. When the wind blows, he sits cross- 
legged all day long in the bow of the boat, smoking his 
chibouque as if he were a youthful Hawagee on the lookout 
for pyramids, sphinxes, and crocodiles ; and when the boat 
is becalmed, he still sits dreamily whiffing, as if the Prophet 
had given liim a foretaste of his Paradise in Latakia * and 
sleep. But when the boat is aground, an almost daily 
occurrence — or when the poles, the oars, or the rope must 
be used to start her on her way, then the word of command 
goes forth with the most violent guttural energy, and in 
strange contrast, that soft plaintive voice leads in the invoca- 
tions to the sun, and the moon, and father, and mother, and 
sister, and the Sultan, and Mecca, and the Effendi, and 
Mohammed, while after each comes in the full monotonous 
chorus, " Wulleh hd holy-saw" Nor does the reis disdain at 
times to lay aside his mantle and his pipe, and in flowing 
turban, striped vest, and puffing knee-bags, to put his brawny 
arm to pole and oar, and to foUow the invocations of his 
mate with a "-hee-haly-saw" At early morning and at 
sunset, and many times in the day, he washes his feet, goes 
up on the quarter-deck, spreads out his mantle, and turning 

* Latakia, the representative of the ancient Laodicea, is a small town 
on the coast of Syria, celebrated for its tobacco. The mild flavor of the 
plant here grown, causes it to be highly prized throughout the Levant. 



A NILE BOAT AND CREW. 37 

his face toward Mecca, bows, and kneels, and prostrates 
liimself, and prays, and kisses, and gesticulates, according to 
the formula, with a gravity and a sincerity that excite at 
once sympathy and charity. To me this is more impressive 
than the genuflections, the marchings and countermarchings 
of the Pope at High Mass in St. Peter's ; and the singsong 
invocations, which continually remind me of the Pope's 
recitatives, are also to unbelieving ears quite as significant in 
the one case as in the other. 

Such is our reis on board the boat. But when the boat 
halts at the little villages along the river, no turbaned head 
moves with greater dignity and grace than his, as he 
exchanges oriental salutations with the chief men, sips of 
their coffee, and inhales through their amber mouth-pieces, 
the choicest weed of Syria. Most complacently too doth the 
reis then smile upon the Ilawagee as they saunter through 
the bazaar, and no doubt he unfoldeth wondrous tales of the 
Occidental travellers committed to his care ; — for it is a 
pardonable weakness of the Arab to magnify himself by 
extolling his employers. And well may he be proud of the 
" Lotus " — a dahaheeh of the largest class, on this her first 
voyage, with the waving stars and stripes, with three six- 
footed American rdgel-zereef, and especially with an Ame- 
rican sit, who is the wonder of all the women and children 
of the villages. His sense of responsibility sometimes keeps 
him on the watch the livelong night against robbers at the 
stopping places. Bating the loss of the forefinger of his 
right hand, which has been amputated to avoid impressment 
in the army, our reis Makzug may be set down for a 
complete man. 

The pay of such a turbaned dignitary, commander, 
priest, and guard, is twenty-five cents a day, out of which 
he feeds himself twice a day with a wooden bowl of black 
bread stewed with lentils, fills the little earthen bowl of his 

4 



38 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

chibouque with the fragrant weed, and liis iinj fingdn with 
a decoction of strong hot black coffee. The reis is the 
character of the boat. We have with him a solemn con- 
tract, prescribing his duties, and our rights, and giving us 
power to settle any dispute or to punish any dehnquency by 
citing him before the nearest local governor. I presume 
that the Arabic version of this important document, sleeps 
as quietly in his private box as the English does in mine. 
But the laws of Egypt are very strict towards the captains 
of the Nile boats. Constructive responsibility is the inva- 
riable rule. We lately met the reis of another, boat, who 
was in great concern lest he should be imprisoned for two 
years, because by the order of the charterers he had gone 
forward without a servant of the party, who had wandered 
from the boat. The reis is answerable for the good conduct 
of the crew, and for the property of the boat and of its 
occupants. The other day when an altercation arose be- 
tween two of our crew, the reis, though far from being a 
match for cither of them physically, cowed them down in 
an instant by raising his stick, and speaking with authority. 
When all our party leave the boat every thing is safe, with 
the key in his hands. Indeed the captain of a travelling boat 
upon the Nile, though its passengers never exceed half a 
dozen, nor its crew a dozen persons, is the most important 
personage upon this ancient river. I doubt whether Cleo- 
patra's barge, with its poop of gold, its oars of silver, and 
its perfumed silken sails, surpassed a modern dahaheeh in 
size and stateliness, or in the substantial comforts of Ameri- 
can Hawagee, whose stores Avere bought in the Egyptian 
bazaar of Alexandria. 

The guiding spirit of our boat is the steersman, Hassan. 
The reis for dignity, Jlassa?! for power. Always at his 
post, leaning over the tiller with the same steady watchful 
eye, you would take liim for old Nilus in e&igy, were it not 



A NILE BOAT AND CKEW. 39 

that when the boat gets fast aground, he leaps upon the 
deck, and with loudest voice, and stoutest arm, assists to 
shove her off. Hassan is a Nubian, as black as Egyptian 
darkness in the days of Pharaoh ; of a finely proportioned 
frame, and wearing upon his shoulders as noble a head as 
the Anglo-Saxon can boast. His expression is intelligent 
and kind, and his manner the perfection of natural dignity 
and grace. He knows his business thoroughlj", and sticks 
to it faithfully. He is not noisy and loquacious like the 
Arab sailors, but when an extra pull is needed, he shows a 
wonderful energy and an instinctive capacity to command, 
which his copper-colored associates as instinctively recog- 
nize. His teeth are the fairest pearls of the Orient, and 
most benignly does he smile upon the Hawagee each morn- 
ing with his " sabdl hhayr,'' (good morning,) to which he 
often adds, " may your day be* blessed." But with many a 
nod and grin does he greet us when the wind promises fair, 
and, pointing to the sails, he repeats the Italian " huono, 
huono" (good, good,) which every Arab has picked up for 
EngHsh. He is withal a natural orator, in every gesture 
and expression. A noble fellow is Hassan, worth more 
surely than twelve and a half cents a day. He has depth 
of character and>indliness of spirit. He never gets uito a 
passion, he never shows signs of weariness. The first 
object you see in the morning when you go upon deck, is 
the white teeth of Hassan smiling his morning salutation 
through his curling black beard : and the last object that 
fades upon your vision as you enter your cabin for the 
■ night, is the blue and white turban, the blue cotton gown, 
and the naked black legs of the prince of the tiller. If the 
wind blows from the north he keeps to the tiller the live- 
lono- night, and always while the boat is in motion he is 
there smoking liis chibouque, or scooping out his little dish 
of stewed bread and beans with one hand upon the tiller. 



40 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

No, not always ; for twice a day or oftener does Hassan 
summon a sailor to his post, then reverently descending the 
stern of the boat, he washes his feet, and, returning to the 
quarter-deck, faces the east, and bows and prostrates himself 
toward the tomb of the prophet. In all this, he shows the 
seriousness of a deep conviction, and the absorption of a 
rapt devotion ; but if meanwhile the boat gets off her 
course, his prayers ended, he grasps the tiller, and shouts to 
the men with an energy M'hicli shovv^s that with all his 
fatalism he holds that " faith without vvorks is dead." Most 
devout is Plassan of all the crew. Like the shepherd of 
Salisbury Plain, he meekly expects to-morrow such wind as 
Allah may please to send. We tried, through our drago- 
man, to offer him some inducements to go to America, but 
his answer was that he was " too religious ! " 

The twelve men composing the crew, are of all ages, 
sizes, and sorts, but chiefly Arabs blind of one eye, or 
maimed of a forefinger, so as to avoid impressment for the 
a?-my ; — for how can a man take sight if his right eye is 
gone, or how pull trigger if the forefinger of his right hand 
is wanting? — but they work well together, and are as jolly 
as the nature of the Arab will allow. Their usual working 
dress consists of a coarse cotton shirt descending to the 
knees, and tied loosely about the waist. When the weather 
is cold, that is, when the thermometer is about fifty degrees, 
they put on over this a loose mantle of blue cotton, or of 
the coarse brown woollen cloth of the country ; they wear 
nothing below the knees, and on their heads, in lieu of the 
turban, they wear the common tarbouch of red felt, or the 
still plainer takeea, a close fitting skullcap of cotton or 
woollen cloth. Their dress is suited not only to the climate, 
but also to the navigation of the Mle, in many of whose 
operations clothes would be a serious incumbrance. Not a 
native on board regularly sports a pair of shoes except the 



A NILE BOAT AND CREW. 41 

professor culinaire, who moves delicately from the store- 
chest to the caboose, in red morocco slippers with pointed 
toes ; and he alone displays a vest of silk, embroidered with 
threads of gold. Only on great occasions, when stopping 
• for a day at some chief town, do the men bag themselves, 
and roll endless folds of cotton about their heads, and put on 
huge coarse-grained red shoes, and then, too, the re'is and 
Hassan having enveloped their heads in coils of purest white, 
grafted upon the crimson taheea, loom majestically in red 
shppers of pointed toes. 

Once I saw Hassan bargaining with a peddling merchant 
who visited our boat, — (all oriental merchants are a sort 
of peddlers, and hence the name Hawagee "merchant," is 
apphed to all travellers,) — for a piece of common cotton 
cloth, evidently of English or American manufacture. Next 
day the wind was ahead, and the boat laid by ; but Hassan 
was not idle ; all day long he sat by his favorite tiller, 
cutting and stitching; he hardly stopped for the dish of 
lentils and bread that was brought to him from the mess on. 
deck ; but before evening, I saw his fat black arms and legs 
emerging from a robe of spotless white. It was his only 
garment, but, set off by a red turban, it became him admira- 
bly, and in make and fit it would have done credit to any 
" Dorcas Society," or " Ladies' Sewing Circle," not to say 
any " Patent Sewing Machine," in the United States. 
Indeed the sculptured toga of the Eoman senator is not 
more graceful than the flowing kirtle of the Nubian steers- 
man. After all, Hassan can " do " upon twelve and a half 
cents a day, with corn-bread and lentils, and a cotton shirt 
made by Ms own hands. I forgot to say that two piastres 
and a half, or about twelve and a half cents a day, is the pay 
of the hands on board the boat, the captain having double 
wages. While the owners of the boat receive nearly eight 
dollars a day — an extravagant price, to which at the time 
4* 



42 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

we had to submit — tlie pay of the officers and men all told 
is hardly two dollars a day. 

In their living, the crew have a perfect community 
of goods. As they are obliged to " find themselves " out 
of their slender wages, it is an object with them to study 
economy. One of their number acts as purser and cook ; 
and it is an indication of the generous traits of the Arabian 
character, that they have selected for this office, one who is 
somewhat deformed, and not capable of heavy work. Their 
principal diet is bread made from very coarse wheat. Some- 
times they buy this ready made, at the principal villages, 
but to save expense they commonly buy the grain, and have 
it ground and baked to order, or grind and bake it them- 
selves. Hence it is always stipulated in the hiring of a 
boat that the crew shall be allowed time, — about thirty-six 
hours, — at certain places, to bake their bread. Once or 
twice, in order to take advantage of a wind, we have paid 
them the difference between baking and buying a three days' 
stock of bread, — about two dollars, or one day's wages for 
the crew. Their meals are all prepared in one dish, and 
with little variation. Their steward takes a quantity of the 
black bread, that has been cut into small pieces and dried in 
the sun, and lays it in the bottom of a wooden bowl, holding 
from six to eight gallons. He then dips up a jar of muddy 
water from the river, and pours this over it to cleanse it and 
soften it. Next he adds a few hard brown beans or lentils, 
— a kind of spht pea, — or perhaps throws in a few onions 
or greens, with a little salt. The whole is then put into an 
iron pot, and stirred over the fire till it is reduced to the 
consistency of a bran poultice, when it is poured back into 
the wooden bowl. This is then placed in the middle of the 
deck, or if the boat is tied up, it is set upon the bank of the 
river, and the men squat in a circle about it, and each dips 
in his hand and eats by the fist full, carefully sucking his 



I 



A NILE BOAT AND CREW. 43 

fingers. When the bowl is emptied, a jar of muddy water 
is passed round, and each man rinses his mouth and takes a 
drink. This is the meal at morning and at evening. At 
noon they lunch apart, upon dry bread and raw onions ; but 
the onions of Egypt are long, white, tender, and sweet. A 
piece of sugar-cane is a great luxury. They always seem 
to enjoy their meal. Whenever I have chanced to be a 
spectator, they have smacked their lips and cried " huono" 
'•He'ieb'^' and have invited me to partake with them, which I 
did — once ! They eat no flesh except on great occasions. 
At three or four principal towns along the river it is cus- 
tomary for the voyagers to give the crew a hacTcshish — a 
present — in the shape of a sheep, or which is better, 
of money to the value of a sheep, with w^hich they buy 
fish, mutton, or what they list. But buy what they will, it 
all goes into the pot together, is reduced to one consistency, 
and then eaten by the fist full from the wooden bowl. 
Sometimes the reis and Hassan have their meals in smaller 
bowls apart, sometimes they sit together with the rest. 
After each meal comes the pipe, or more strictly, the pipe 
which had been laid aside for the meal, is resumed as soon 
as this is finished. Smoking is to the Arab what coffee, tea, 
and other stimulants are to the Anglo-Saxon : it is a great 
part of his nourishment. His tobacco is mild, plenty, cheap, 
and is his greatest comfort. 

In point of character these Arab sailors are altogether 
superior to American sailors or boatmen who are not 
pledged teetotalers. I would rather trust myself with them, 
ten times over, than with such crews as I have seen upon 
the Mississippi. They are not wichedly profane, though 
they sometimes in sport invoke the prophet's curse upon a 
passing boat. They are not passionate, for though a storm 
of words would sometimes indicate great wrath, they seldom 
come to blows. They have no strong drink of any kind on 



44 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

board the boat, and only once or tmce have I seen any 
of them drink drakee (date-brandy) or beer, at some of the 
larger towns. The cofifee-shop takes the place of the 
dram-shop, and the chief indulgence of sailors on shore 
seems to be, lounging about a coffee-shop, sipping coffee and 
smoking the pipe. The sailors on the Nile are not, as is too 
often true of American sailors and boatmen, a degraded and 
vicious set of men. In dress and appearance they are 
superior to the fellahs or common field laborers. Though 
looked down upon as an inferior class, they are respectable, 
wellbehaved, frugal of their money, and comparatively free 
from the grosser forms of wickedness. The crew of the 
Lotus seem part and parcel of the family. 



CHAPTER V 



NAVIGATION, VILLAGES, BAZAAR, HOUSES, AND CHILDREN. 

It is difficult to convey to one familiar only with American 
rivers a definite idea of the navigation of the Nile. There 
is no river in the United States that corresponds with it. 
Like the Mississippi, the Nile has a rapid current — about 
three miles an hour — and its channel is continually chang- 
ing. But the Nile has no bluffs, — - though sometimes the 
banks rise some twenty feet above the highest watermark, 
— and it has no wooded islands or bottoms, and no snags or 
sawyers. 

In the Delta the soil varies from ten to fifteen feet in 
depth, and during the inundation this whole section is over- 
flowed — the villages being protected by embankments, and 
communication being kept up by means of boats. The 
Delta is a triangular piece of land comprised within the 
Rosetta and the Damietta branches of the Nile, the only 
two that remain of the original six or seven mouths of the 
river. The base of this triangle on the sea-coast is eighty- 
one miles ; but it is very narrow at its apex, where the 
Nile divides into its two branches. The Delta contains 
about two thousand square miles. The northern district 
of Egypt, extending from the pyramids to the sea, and 
embracing the Delta with the arable ground upon either side 
of it, contains four thousand five hundred square miles — a 
surface equal to the State of Connecticut, or one tenth the 



46 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

size of New York. " The Nile marks on either side the 
extent of fertility by the measure of its inundations." 

We entered the Eosetta branch at Atfeh. At this season 
this branch varies from one half to three quarters of a mile 
in width, and in some parts it is exceedingly shallow and 
obstructed by sand-banks, ncAV formed islands, or large 
alluvial deposits upon either hand. Unlike the Mississippi, 
it receives no tributary for more than a thousand miles from 
its mouth. The Nile is navigable only for boats of fifty or 
sixty tons, and drawing from three to five feet of water ; 
and all the river boats are built with reference to the canal. 
The only craft upon the river, are a few steamboats of 
small dimensions, belonging to the government or to the 
Transportation Company, and employed chiefly in its ser- 
vice, pleasure-boats or travelling-boats such as I have 
described, and freight-boats built upon the same scale for 
carrying corn, cotton, and earthen-ware. 

In going up the river every thing depends upon a north 
wind. Without this but little headway can be made against 
the current. Sometimes this wind blows almost a hurricane, 
and blowing against the current lashes the river into a 
tumult that revives the disagreeable sensation of sea-sick- 
ness. Then the boat bounds along at the rate of five or six 
miles an hour, while the current deludes you into the notion 
that it is running eight or ten ; but if such a wind holds, two 
or three days will carry you to Cairo, and ten or fifteen more 
to Thebes. But do not deceive yourself with any such 
expectation. The " Lotus " started from Alexandria with 
such a wind, and made one fourth the distance to Cairo the 
first afternoon, but it was nine days before she reached the 
"Magnificent" capital. Again she left Cairo with such a 
wind, and as the pyramids faded, Kai'nac loomed up only 
ten days ahead, yet it was twenty-seven days before we saw 
any other than a looming Karnac. The average voyage to 



NAVIGATION. 47 

Cairo is four days, and from tliere to Thebes twenty. We 
were thirty-eight days from Alexandria to Tliebes, about six 
hundred and thirty miles, including a stay of two days at 
Cairo, and a day and a half at Denderah. In all that time 
we had but three or four days of the north wind, which at 
this season is said to prevail. When there is no wind, the 
boat can be impelled against the current only by pulling — 
not with oars, for these are useless in going up stream — but 
with a long rope which passes through a loop about thirty 
feet up the mast, and is fastened to the upper deck near the 
tiller. This rope is taken ashore, and the crew attach to it 
small cords, which they bind about their breasts or foreheads, 
and then march wearily in procession, chanting doleful songs, 
and making four or five miles a day. Sometimes a light 
wind assists this towing, but it is tedious work. When the 
wind is ahead, as with us it often was — the south wind" 
prevailing — it is hardly possible to proceed at all, for the 
tortuous channel of the Nile does not admit of "beating," 
and the boat must lie by. A huge wooden pin, driven into 
the ground by a mallet, answers the purpose of a temporary 
pier, and as there are no wharves along the Nile, every boat 
carries its own peg. Coming down the stream the boat 
either sails by the south wind, using the small sail only for 
safety, floats along with the current, stern foremost, broad- 
side, anywise, or is prof>elled by the oars as long as the 
strength of the crew holds out ; but v/hen the north wind 
blows stiffly she must be tied up to her peg for hours or 
days. 

At first one is ready to impute the dilatory progress 
of the boat to the indolence or the incompetence of the reis 
and crew. And undoubtedly these have it in their power 
in various ways to retard the boat for their own interest. 
With them time is nothing ; and the leisurely occupation 
of a long voyage relieves the monotony of utter idleness at 



48 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

home, while it yields a daily support and the scanty means 
of dress and of amusement. The traveller should retain in 
his own hands the authoritative direction of the boat. I 
have never seen more nimble sailors than the Arabs are 
when acting under authority. 

But after all, the Nile must continue to be navigated at 
about the same dull rate. The same process of tracking 
and poling is dehneated in the sculptures of ancient Egypt. 

Parties sometimes charter a small steamer for the upper 
Nile. Tliis is well enough for travellers who are greatly 
pressed for time. But in order to bring the expenses 
within reasonable limits, such a party must be made larger 
than is consistent with comfort in such narrow accommoda- 
tions, or larger at least than will admit of proper privacy 
and independence. Then there is the constant annoyance 
of heat, vapors, gas, and noise ; and besides, the loss of 
•much that is worthy of observation along the river, — for 
the steamboat stops only at prominent points, and does not 
give opportunities for daily walks, and for the near inspec- 
tion of fields and villages. 

It would avail but little to sharpen the model of the 
dahabeeh, for the windings of the river and the numerous 
sand-bars preclude tacking and beating as expedients for 
progress. Besides, a sharp built boat carrying much sail, 
would be apt to capsize in the sudden flaws and whirlwinds 
that sweep over the river. As the waters of the inunda- 
tion subside, the forming of new islands, the opening of new 
sluices, and the shrinking of the main channel, make it 
difficult for those most familiar with the river to avoid 
running aground. This is a very frequent occurrence ; but 
one for which the sailors are fully prepared. Throwing 
aside their single garment, they leap overboard like dogs, 
and in puris naturalihus apply their shoulders to the bow, 
and with a hee-haly-saw shove and shove until the boat is 






VILLAGES. 49 

afloat again. American sailors would not consent to such 
work as this, or to such a style of dress as it requires. 
But theoretical boating will not answer here. And if the 
navigation of the Nile should be "improved," and light 
clipper yachts should take the place of the dahaheeh, who 
would care to visit the river of Egypt? Herein at least 
we must do as Egyptians do. 

I have spoken of a Nile village as a picture ; let me now 
introduce the reader to one as it is. The first that I 
explored was a very favorable specimen, the village of 
Negeeleh in the Delta. The houses are built of bricks 
made of the mud of the Nile mixed with straw, just as it 
was in the time of Moses, and dried in the sun. Each 
house is but one story, or about ten feet in height, and 
consists usually of a court or yard a few feet square, and 
of two apartments, one of which has a mud chimney for 
cooking, and the other, raised benches of mud brick, upon 
which mats are spread for sitting by day and for sleeping 
by night. There are also mats upon the roof for the 
same purpose. * In the yard the " stock," cows, camels, 
sheep, goats, donkeys, are huddled by night, and the place 
is redolent of their ordure. Each house has one or more 
dog, which lies about the door or on the roof, and yelps 
hideously at the approach of a stranger. In this village 
the houses are arranged in rectangular blocks, and the 
streets are about eight feet wide. No wheeled vehicle ever 
passes through them. Indeed, except at Alexandria and 
Cairo, there is not a wheeled vehicle in all Egypt, and it is 
only within a few years that carriages have been introduced 
into these cities. All burdens are carried on the backs of 
donkeys or of camels. Outside of the village lie heaps 
of rubbish and filth — the common deposit of the inhabi- 
tants ; and here, too, are larger folds for the cattle that 
cannot be accommodated in the house-yards. Along the 
5 



50 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

river is a bazaar, in front of which is a rude garden planted 
with acanthus trees. The bazaar is a row of stalls, each 
about six feet square, sometimes not more than three feet 
front, in which the stock of the village merchants is 
deposited under lock by night, and in front of which it is 
exposed for sale by day. The bazaar everywhere wears the 
same general character. In Cairo, of course, it presents a 
rich display of goods, and covers an extensive area. 

In all the larger towns it occupies several of the little 
winding alleys called streets ; but each particular shop is 
of the same diminutive size, and the entire stock of a 
bazaar in a to^vn of ten or twenty thousand inhabitants, 
would hardly fill a respectable store on Broadway. The 
standard articles exposed for sale are tobacco, lentils, bread 
in flat loaves as big as one's hand, pipes and pipe bowls, 
little coffee-cups, onions, dates, slippers, shawls, and turbans. 
Occasionally you will find articles of beauty or of delicacy, 
but usually every alternate stall is for tobacco or bread, and 
interspersed with these are coffee-shops occupying the space 
of two or three stalls. 

The bazaar at Negeeleh has about forty stalls ; in front 
of each, the proprietor squats upon his haunches, smoking 
his pipe or sipping his coffee, and waiting for a customer. 
Two or three dollars a day must be the extent of business 
done at one of these stalls on an average, even on a market- 
day ; — twenty-five cents profit would doubtless be consid- 
ered a good day's business, even in many of the larger 
towns. In front of the bazaar a few women veiled with the 
universal yashmak sat with little piles of bread or a few 
beans, eggs, or oranges for sale, rarely accosting any one, 
and hardly exposing their faces when addressed. 

In one quarter of the village is a little open square 
planted with palm-trees, and on one side of this a diminu- 
tive mosque with a slender minaret — a round tapering tower 



BAZAAR AND HOUSES. 51 

of brick stuccoed, surrounded with tiers of galleries, and 
terminating in a ball pointed with a three-pronged rod. 
There is no bell in the mosque-tower, but from these galleries 
the hour of prayer is called in a shrill waving voice that 
resounds far over the plain.* In all Egypt I never heard 
a bell of any size or kind, except two little tinkling cow-bells 
attached to Roman Catholic convents far up the Nile. What 
a contrast to the perpetual din and clash in Malta, and 
everywhere in Italy. 

The village I have described was an average specimen. 
Sometimes the houses are the merest hovels with but one 
room, and a hole about two and a half feet high, that 
answers for a door. Yet even here the poor man's goat or 
sheep, or the donkey that earns a living for the family while 
he eats nothing himself, sleeps in the common inclosure. 
On the upper Nile the houses often have a mere roofing 
of twisted palm leaves, for in a climate where rain never 
falls, they need protection only from the sun. Sometimes 
the palm is gracefully disposed among the houses. In the 
largest towns are many houses of a better quality, built 
of burnt brick, two or three stories high, with windows and 
balconies, and interior courts open to the air. But the 
streets are seldom more than from six to eight feet wide, 
and are seldom as regular as at Negeeleh ; the houses are- 
crowded together very compactly, and the bazaar, though it 
may cover a range of a mile, is lined only Avith the same 
little shops. In such towns there are gates at the entrances 
of all the principal streets or quarters, which are closed at 
night. To\Mis built on the confines of the desert, are 
usually surrounded with a crude brick wall mounted with a 
palisade of cornstalks, to protect them from the predatory 



* Al-ld-hu ah-bdr, AUd-hu<aJc-bai; Al-ld-Jm ale-bar, Al-la- - - - - hu 
ah-bar. 



1 



52 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Arabs. Occasionally you will see a rude ornament in ttie 
shape of a piece of painted pottery, or some Arabic inscrip- 
tion, plastered over the door way; but the most pleasing 
feature of the villages, is the pigeon-houses everywhere 
seen along the upper Nile.. Sometimes these are huge 
round or square towers built apart from the village, and 
having their walls perforated with earthen pots, through 
which the birds enter by thousands ; but commonly they are 
appendages of the dwellings of the people. The squabs are 
caught inside the cote, and eaten or sold. Pigeons and 
chickens are very abundant on the Nile, and the boats make 
quite a market for them. 

The mud brick of which the houses are generally built, 
is a material of sufficient strength and durability, and if 
painted or whitewashed, houses of this material would be 
quite neat and comfortable. The narrowness of the streets 
and the thickness of the walls favor coolness, and the bazaar 
streets are usually covered with boards or palm leaves as a 
protection against the sun. There is a great want of clean- 
liness in the villages and in the houses ; but in large towns 
the bazaar is daily swept, and is sprinkled from skins filled 
with water and carried under the arm. 

The sorriest sight in an Arab village is the children. 
Boys ten or twelve years old are often seen stark naked, 
with the exception of a little skullcap, while younger urchins 
sport a string of beads upon the simple apparel nature gave 
them when they came into the world. But this nudity of 
nature soon ceases to offend you as does the studied nudity 
of Italian art, for you see it everywhere ; the laborer on the 
canal, in the brick field, among the sugar-cane, and at the 
shadoof, takes lessons in tailoring from our first father ; yet, 
with the natives, this is a matter of course, and so the 
traveller comes to disregard it. Indeed this scantiness of 
apparel seems to be a result of sheer poverty; for often 



CHILDREN. 53 

when you are sweltering with the heat, the Egyptian will 
wrap his woollen garment close about him, if this is all he 
has. It is not the mere nakedness of the children that 
annoys you ; but their squalor, and the shiftless condition in 
which they seem to grow up ; and especially the swarms 
of flies that cover their eyes, noses, mouths, ears, and turn 
their faces into running sores. This is probably one cause 
of ophthalmia, the plague of Egypt. 

The heads of the boys are shaved, and covered with little 
caps. The little girls are always clad in some way, and the 
boys don't seem to know the dilBference. Indeed children 
will be happy somehow, and it is a blessed thing that they 
can be. But oh for Sabbath schools and boys' meetings in 
this land of degradation ! It is the thought of what these 
naked sore-eyed urchins are to be in their condition here, 
and their destiny hereafter, that makes your eyes water and 
your heart bleed as you look upon them ; — for just now, 
that destitute and crying child, whose mother soothes it 
under the folds of her own soiled and tattered mantle, may 
be more favored than the best dressed and tended child that 
no longer knows a mother's love. 

5* 



CHAPTER VI. 

OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE WATER JARS PRODUC- 
TIONS TILLAGE THE SHADOOF AND THE SAKIA. 

The occupations of people on the Nile are very simple. 
Those who keep shop in the bazaar, have little else to do 
but sit on their haunches, smoke pipes, and sip coffee. 
"Walking through the bazaar soon after sunrise, you see the 
baker busy at his oven — a little round-topped mud oven at 
his door, wliich he heats with brush or dried dung, and into 
which he lays, on iron plates, the thin cakes which he slaps 
out with fingers dipped in melted butter ; you see the barber 
shaving, not chins, but heads ; you see the veiled women 
squatting on the ground beside their little stock of eggs, 
bread, lentils, onions, and white unsalted butter; and you 
see the coffee-shops with their tiny cups all ready for use ; — 
but the "merchant princes" have not yet come "down 
town," and their stalls are unopened. You meet no news- 
boy or letter carrier, but perhaps a janissary, who, if he 
does not look daggers at you, thrusts them out from his belt 
in formidable conjunction with a horse pistol. 

Later in the day you will find all the little stalls open ; 
but if you would appreciate the scene, imagine Wall street 
at one o'clock, instead of being thronged with jabbering 
brokers and hurrying bank clerks, lined on both sides with 
gowned and turbaned men sitting on their haunches, before 
little stalls like that of the soap man who used to stand on 
the steps of the Exchange, smoking pipes, drinking coffee, 



OCCUPATIONS OF THE PEOPLE. 65 

and — not reading newspaper^, but playing chess or draughts 
with as much nonchalance as if each man owned the town, 
while all around the little coffee-shops, or on the divans 
under the shade of palm-leaf mats stretched over the street, 
the retired merchant sits languidly discussing neither stocks, 
estates, nor politics, but pipes, coffee, and draughts, (not 
drafts.) Your constant wonder is how so many lazy people 
contrive to live ; and yet so far as the mere living is con- 
cerned, they probably understand the art, and take the 
comfort of it far better than you. 

At about five o'clock nearly all the little stalls are closed, 
and the people gone — I don't know where. They are not 
riding in their carriages, for there are none ; they are not 
walking in the gardens nor in the promenades, for there are 
none ; they have not gone to balls, theatres, or concerts, for 
there are none ; they have not taken the ferry, the railway, 
or the omnibus to then' country-seats, for there are none 
of all these ; and yet you can hardly imagine that all these 
turbaned dignitaries, with red slippers and silk shawls, are 
cooped in the little mud houses one or two stories high that 
encompass the bazaar and make up the town. Here and 
there you meet a portable blacksmith's shop — a tiny fur- 
nace and a pair of bellows or a fan rigged up on the side 
of the street ; or you see a silk weaver with his hand-loom 
preparing the exquisite braid of crimson silk, with which 
even the sailor delights to ornament his cotton shawl. 

The greater part of the day everybody seems to live 
out of doors ; and around every village you will see groups 
of men, some well dressed, some ill dressed, sunning them- 
selves in the morning, and at noon the same groups shading 
themselves under the palms — after which I suppose they 
go home to rest. I do n't know who they are, nor how they 
get their living ; and I suppose that is none of my business ; 
only the sight of them sometimes makes me laugh, and 



56 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

sometimes makes me cross, because they don't offer to help 
the poor women with their water jars. They have nothing 
to read, and they seldom talk ; but sit on their haunches, 
and smoke, smoke, smoke. I don't know but they are 
transacting important business ; I don't know but they are 
making friendly calls, but it looks very much like doing 
nothing ; and neither dogs nor fleas appear to trouble them. 
Now and then, as you walk through a narrow village street, 
you hear the creaking of a great wheel, and prying in at 
the door crack, you see half a dozen women with little 
baskets of grain upon a mud floor, all bemired with filth, 
while a blinded buffalo turns the rude mill to grind their 
little store. 

Outside of the villages, a principal occupation of the 
people is the tending of flocks, and it is a picturesque and 
beautiful sight at sunrise to see streaming forth from a 
village over the neighboring plain, camels, cows, oxen, 
sheep, and goats, — sometimes a few of each grouped 
together, — and then to watch them as they are distributed 
upon the little patches of grass or grain belonging to their 
several owners, where they are made fast to pegs in the 
ground, — for there are no fences — and left in the care 
of children, or of old men and women. These employ 
themselves in spinning cotton or woollen yarn for the family, 
while tending the flocks and herds. Their apparatus for 
this purpose is of the most simple and primitive form. 
The sketch is from one that I bought out of the hands 
of an old man who sat twisting his spindle in the fields the 
livelong day. [See Plate.] 

At sunset, 

" The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea," 

and all the cattle are housed in or near the village. If one 
would see pastoral life in its primitive simplicity, just as it 



OCCUPATIONS or THE PEOPLE. 57 

was in the days of Abraham, let him come and look over 
the plains of Egypt upon such a scene. 

Yonder is a family tending a mixed flock of sheep and 
goats. The oldest, a lad of twelve, has not a shred of 
clothing except a little skullcap ; his three little brothers are 
in the same predicament, except that the youngest is minus 
the cap also, and has a great string of beads around his 
neck. Their little sister is done up in blue cotton. They 
have a reed fife, and are as happy as the lambs with which 
they are frisking. 

When a plain is very extensive, it is covered with booths, 
such as Jacob built, to shelter the cattle and those that tend 
them. 

Of the productions of the soil I have already spoken. 
Cotton is raised chiefly in the Delta, but though the staple is 
excellent, the quantity is comparatively small, and Egypt 
can never compete in this respect with the southern States. 
So we need not dissolve the Union upon that account. Wheat 
is a great staple, and of a fair quality, though often strong. 
While looking upon the luxuriant crops of wheat, barley, 
and beans, that even in February are ripe for the sickle, 
while others are maturing for a later harvest, it is easy to 
realize that Egypt was once the granary of the world. I 
do not remember any prairie fields in the West that would 
compare with these in the strength and fulness of the 
grain. Large boat loads of wheat and beans are passing 
daily to Cairo. Indigo is extensively cultivated, and the 
plant is soaked and beaten out in huge earthen pots. This 
is quite a business in some villages. Tobacco is very 
abundant and of a mild quality. 

The sugar manufacture is a monopoly of the government, 
and is carried on upon a large scale along the upper Nile. 
Vast fields of poppies, beautiful in flower, often overspread 
the plains in weU-planted rows. 



58 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Of agriculture, as we use the term, the Egyptians know 
but little. Their plow consists of a crooked stick shod with 
iron at one end, and forked at the other, and a tongue which 
plays in this fork, and to which the sharpened end is 
fastened with a sUding peg to regulate the depth of the 
furrow. It is the same instrument that the sculptures show 
us was in use four thousand years ago. I have seen a 
camel and a cow. yoked together to such a plow as this. 

I have never seen any process of weeding or hoeing, 
though both at times seem necessary, especially in the 
tobacco fields. The sickle is a rude knife, sHghtly curved, 
and as the reaper cuts, the binder follows, and ties up the 
grain in little bundles ; — nor does Ruth, hiding her face in 
her yashmak, fail to glean her apron full', after the young 
men. 

The lotus, so often represented in the capitals of columns 
in the ancient temples, and- the papyrus that afforded to the 
ancient Egyptians a material for writing, are no longer 
numbered among the productions of the soil. The predic- 
tion of Isaiah, that "the reeds and flags .... and the 
paper reeds by the brooks" should "wither, be driven away, 
and be no more," has been literally fulfilled.* The general 
productiveness of Egypt must also have decreased since the 
sixth century, when it "exported each year two hundred 
and sixty thousand quarters of wheat for the use of Con- 
stantinople," and " a string of camels, laden with corn and 
provisions, covered almost without an interval the long road 
from Memphis to Medina." 

The one great occupation of the country is that of getting 
the water of the river up into the houses, and over the land. 
The first is the business of the women. Nearly all the 
water used for drinking and for cooking is brought from the 

* Isaiah, xix. 6, 7. 



WATER JARS. .59 

Nile, as there are few wells in the country. Every merning 
you will see the women of the village in long rows coming 
down to the river, each with one or two water jars to be 
filled for the day's supply. The water jar is of the ancient 
Egyptian form, just as sculptured upon the tombs of the 
time of Joseph — an earthen vessel bulging in the middle, 
and narrow at top, holding from two to ten gallons. It is 
carried on the head, and sometimes a smaller one also in 
the hand. The women of the villages universally wear a 
blue cotton garment unmade, but wrapped about the person, 
and a cotton headpiece of the same color, which is fastened 
about the forehead, and hangs down over the shoulders, and 
which may be drawn closely about the face. When they 
come down to the river, they wade out into the stream, rmse 
out their jars, and fill them with the muddy water. They 
then wash themselves and the soiled parts of their apparel, 
and lifting the jar to their heads, return in groups to their 
homes. It is astonishing to see them rise from the ground 
with a weight of from thirty to fifty pounds on top of the 
head, and without even steadying it with the hand, climb up 
a steep and crumbling bank thirty feet high, and walk 
briskly a quarter of a mile. This gives them their erect 
stature and upright gait, and counteracts the effect of the 
bad air of the hovels. 

At first I used to pity them, and to think their condition 
worthy the notice of some " Woman's Rights " Convention ; 
but when I peeped into their houses and saw that there were 
no floors or paint to scrub, no beds to make, no table to set, 
no knives and forks to clean, no dishes to wash, nothing but 
two dirty rooms to be kept always dirty, and some unwashed 
naked cliildren to be daily exposed to the sun and the flies, 
I felt that carrying a jug of water once a day was not a 
very heavy badge of slavery for the female sex. Besides, 
do they not see all the neighbors at the river, and talk 
over all the scandal, or what are they chattering about ? 



60 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Our cook boy, who is picking up a little English, seeing 
me peering into a native hovel, said, " This, sleep the ArahP 
And that is pretty much the whole story. An Arab's house 
is the place for sleeping. He hves out of doors. Hence 
the cares of a housewife are few. Yet" the domestic attach- 
ments of these poor people are very strong. Only the 
" Upper Ten " of the cities practice polygamy. And 
woman is happy in Egypt, even if she does nothing but 
carry a water jar on her head, and a sore-eyed baby on her 
shoulders, or in a basket on her crown. 

I was greatly amused one day, at seeing a little girl not 
over four years old, strutting along-side of her mother with 
a tiny water jar on her head, as if she were a new made 
queen. I don't think "Women's Rights" could do any 
thing in this generation toward taking off the burden from 
the heads of their sisters in Egypt. The water jar is 
rather the prerogative of womanhood. 

Except during the season of the inundation of the Nile, 
the land is watered wholly by artificial means. I never 
could fully comprehend the practicability of this, till I saw 
it done. For six hundred miles south of Cairo, Upper 
Egypt is but a strip of alluvium some five or six miles wide, 
deposited upon both sides of the Nile along the edge of two 
deserts, or the bases of two parallel ranges of naked lime- 
stone hills. In the high Nile the river overflows nearly the 
whole of this, and adds to its richness the wash of the 
Nubian mountains. For the rest of the year the land is 
watered from the Nile by machines of various sorts. The 
simplest and most common of these is the shadoof, which 
consists of a pole swung between two upright timbers, and 
having a stone or a ball of mud at one end, and a bucket 
of skin at the other. A little trench is cut from the river, 
which feeds a pool below the level of the stream, and from 
this, the water is dipped up by the bucket, and poured into 










WOMAN AND CHILD. 



A 



I 




i! 



d 



SHADOOF AND SAKIA. 61 

another trench. If this is at the level of the bank, little 
branches are cut from it, or rather canals are made by little 
ridges of earth, and the water is thus distributed over the 
field; but when the bank is high, a second shadoof, and 
sometimes a third and a fourth, is erected, and the water is 
dipped up from trench to trench. This is hard work, and 
as each landholder must provide his own shadoof, it is the 
principal work in raising the crops. Another machine is 
the sahia : for this, a large deep well is dug, which is fed 
from the Nile ; into this a wheel, surrounded with earthen 
jars, is dipped by the revolution of a cog-wheel moved by 
oxen, and each jar in turn empties itself into a trench, like 
the buckets of the elevator in a flour mill. The sakia is so 
much more expensive than the shadoof that only the larger 
proprietors, or a combination of smaller proprietors, can 
afford to work it. All day long the sakia, which is never 
oiled, creaks lazily in its round, and the half clad laborer at 
the shadoof moans his monotonous song. In Egypt all 
labor groans. 

It has been computed that there are iii Egypt forty 
thousand sakias, which would give about four to every 
square mile of cultivation. But this seems to be an over- 
estimate. Many erected in Mohammed All's reign, have 
now fallen into decay. In Nubia each water-wheel is 
taxed about fifteen dollars per annum, but there is no tax 
upon the land. In Egypt the land is taxed about three 
dollars per acre, which is from ten to fifteen per cent, on its 
cost, but there is no tax on the water-wheel. The large 
sugar plantations of the Pasha, along the banks of the Nile, 
as well as the royal and the public gardens at Cairo, are 
watered by means of steam forcing-pumps. The larger 
plains are watered by great canals that intersect the river 
at various points, and that ai-e opened to receive the waters 
6 



62 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of the inundation, and then are closed to retain the waters 
after the flood subsides. 

The present inhabitants of Egypt, hke the ancients, 
divide the year into three seasons of four months each, 
based upon the phenomena of nature. Th« ancient divis- 
ions were, the " Season of Vegetation," the " Season of 
Manifestation," and the "Season of the Waters:" the 
modern divisions are, Winter, Siunmer, and the Nile, or the 
Inundation. The latter begins about the period of the 
summer solstice, and the river attains its greatest height at 
the autumnal equinox. Then he who casts his bread upon 
the waters will find it after many days. The peasant has 
no occasion to watch the clouds ; for it is true now, as in 
the days of Zechariah, that in the land of Egypt there is 
no rain. 

I cannot better conclude this chapter than in the words 
of Amrou to the Caliph Omar. " commander of the 
faithful, Egypt is a compound of black earth and green 
plants, between a pulverized mountain and a red sand. 
The distance from Syene to the sea is a month's journey for 
a horseman. Along the valley descends a river, on which 
the blessing of the Most High reposes, both in the evening 
and mornmg, and which rises and falls with the revolutions 
of the sun and moon. When the annual dispensation of 
Providence unlocks the springs and fountains that nourish 
the earth, the Nile rolls his swelling and sounding waters 
through the realm of Egypt : the fields are oversj)read by 
the salutary flood; and the villages communicate with each 
other in their painted barks. The retreat of the inundation 
deposits a fertilizing mud for the reception of the various 
seeds ; the crowd of husbandmen who blacken the land may 
be compared to a swarm of industrious ants; and their 
native indolence is quickened by the lash of the task- 



SHADOOF AND SAKIA. 63 

master, and the promise of the flowers and fruits of a 
plentiful increase. Their hope is seldom deceived ; but the 
riches which they extract from the wheat, the barley, and 
the rice, the legumes, the fruit-trees, and the cattle, are 
unequally shared between those who labor and those who 
possess. According to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the 
face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a ver- 
dant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest." 



CHAPTER VII. 

TENURE OF LAND DISPOSITION AND MANNEES OF THE 

PEOPLE. 

The tenure of land in Egypt is much the same as Joseph 
made it when he was prime minister. The fee of the 
greater part of the soil is in the Pasha, though in various 
ways much land has gradually passed into other hands. 
Good land is worth from twenty dollars to twenty-five dollars 
per acre, and is taxed three dollars a year. Land is divided 
into very small lots, for grazing and other purposes. The 
land is sometimes farmed on shares — the tiller receiving 
one fourth of the produce ; but the mere peasant, or fellah, 
does not receive over three or four cents a day ; while in 
digging canals, and in other public works for the general 
good, he is compelled by the sheik to work for nothing and 
find himself. But then in Egypt there is no road-tax, no 
poll-tax, no school-tsix, only a tax on land, on palm-trees, 
on every thing that is raised to be consumed. 

Egypt is a fine grazing country, — especially in the 
Delta, on the eastern side of which was the land of Goshen. 
This accords with the allusions in the Bible to the " much 
cattle" of the children of Israel. There is a breed of 
oxen called buffaloes, but they answer to our American 
buffalo only in having a bunch on the shoulders. They 
are usually black; their heads are long and fiat; their 
horns fiat, and curling backwards and inwards, and their 
whole appearance is one of "non-resistant" meekness. 



TENURE OF LAND. 65 

Some have no horns at all. The milk of the cows is good ; 
but the beef is wretched. Indeed, beef is almost despised 
in Egypt as an article of food. It is amusing to see a 
drove of these cattle swim across the Nile, from a village 
to a pasture ground on the opposite shore. Thej plunge 
into the swift current as if they loved to baffle it, which 
they do with surprising ease. Sometimes the driver will 
ride over on the back of an animal, stooping on its shoul- 
ders and poising his clothes on his head. In the middle of 
the stream you see only the floating heads of oxen, with 
here and there a bundle of clothes peering above the water. 
Most picturesque is the sight of a herd of cattle standing 
motionless on the water's edge in a sultry noon. 

English cattle have been introduced into Egypt, and I 
have seen some noble specimens. But in general the cattle 
are stinted ; for while the pasture is excellent, there is too 
little of it in the possession of private owners to allow of 
the free pasturage of stock. It would be hard to get up an 
agricultural fair in Egypt, though the spontaneous products 
of the country would rival those of any clime. 

Sheep and goats herd together, illustrating another fre- 
quent allusion of the Scriptures. Both the mutton and the 
wool of Egypt are of an inferior quality. But the great 
breed of Egypt is the donkey of all work — just the same 
dumpish, slender-shanked, long-eared donkey that was sculp- 
tured in tombs four thousand years ago. 

The scarcity of wood in Egypt strikes an American eye 
as a disadvantage. But the people use fuel only once or 
twice a day for a little cooking, and the canebrake, corn- 
stalks, palm branches, cactus roots, and the dung of cattle 
dried in the sun, give them a full supply. In the few days 
of cool weather, they shrink and shiver under their woollen 
sacks. 

Of the people of Egypt generally, I can speak in th^ 
6* 



66 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

most favorable terms. They are simple-liearted and well 
disposed towards strangers. Sometimes they seem quick 
tempered and quarrelsome among themselves, but their 
passion generally expends itself in words and gestures. 
Once I saw the very impersonation of hate in a lank Arab, 
with a sunken eye, blazing with fury, a clenched fist jerking 
violently in the air, teeth chattering, with hoarse raging 
gutturals that came too fast for utterance, and I looked for 
a violent onset upon the cause of the provocation — but 
words, words, words, and when these were spent, savage 
looks from flashing eyes, like the thunder-cloud retreating 
without rain. 

Commonly the people are attracted by the presence of 
strangers, and pleased with any attention, especially with a 
few words spoken in their own language. Sailors, who are 
usually a rough-grained set of men, are here the merest 
children. The diversions suited to children are just the 
thing for them. To salute the captain in Arabic and in the 
Oriental style, to take a whiJBT of his pipe, to salute each 
sailor by name, and then extend the " Salamat " to a live 
young crocodile on board, to join in the chorus of their 
songs, any extempore child's play of a moment, gives them 
a full hour's glee. I suspect that our names will pass per- 
manently into the choruses of sundry Nile songs. 

Mr. Stephens bore a similar testimony almost twenty 
years ago. He says, " For nearly two months I had been 
floating on the celebrated river, with a dozen Arabs, prompt 
to do my slightest bidding, and in spite of bugs, and all 
manner of creeping things, enjoying pleasures and comforts 
that are not to be found in Europe ; and it was with some- 
thing more than an ordinary feeling of regret that I parted 
from my worthy boatmen. I know that it is the custom 
with many travellers to rail at the Arabs, and perhaps to 
beat them, and have them bastinadoed; but I could not, 



MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE. 67 

and cannot join in such oppression of this poor and much 
abused people. On the contrary, I do not hesitate to say- 
that I always found them kind, honest, and faithful,- thankful 
for the smallest favor, never surly or discontented, and 
always ready and anxious to serve me with a zeal that I 
have not met in any other people ; and when they came up 
in a body to the locanda to say farewell, I felt that I was 
parting with tried and trusty friends." 

I never met with an American traveller on the Nile, who 
mingled with the people, who did not bear the same testi- 
mony. They are a remarkably susceptible people, open to 
impressions from strangers, and if released from the fear of 
the death penalty for a change of religion, they would be 
promising subjects for missionary labor. From Mussulmen 
generally, the stories of travellers and the spirit of the 
Koran had led us to expect uncivil treatment, except where 
this might be restrained through the hope of employment or 
of trade. But we never received incivility from any quar- 
ter; and I am persuaded that either the unfavorable im- 
pressions of some English travellers, respecting the native 
population of Egypt, are to be traced to the national hauteur 
which Englishmen are apt to exhibit abroad, or the preju- 
dices of the common people have been greatly modified by 
intercourse with foreigners. The term Hawagee, which is 
universally applied to Franks or Europeans, I am sure is 
not commonly used as a term of contempt, to denote the 
superiority of the Moslem to the Christian, as Sir Gardner 
Wilkinson represents it in his " Hand-Book for Travellers 
in Egypt." True, the beggar, in asking alms of a true 
Mussulman, accosts him " Sidi " (sir) while he calls the 
Christian foreigner Hawagee, a term meaning " Christian 
merchant," as distinguished from Khowagee, a Moslem mer- 
chant. This, Sir Gardner thinks, " answers to the French 
marchand" a word sometimes used " to stigmatize the Eng- 



68 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

lish as a nation of shopkeepers/' — a term of affected supe- 
riority and contempt. I have yet to learn, however, that 
the profession of a merchant is disreputable in the East. 
The Turkish bazaar at Cairo, with its rich display of silks 
and jewels, or the long caravan of the Armenian, laden 
with the riches of Persia, of China, and the Indies, would 
hardly suggest that idea. Possibly the word Hawagee has 
a double meaning ; or it may, at first, have been applied 
contemptuously, as perhaps the name " Christian " was first 
given to the disciples at Antioch as a term of contempt. 
But this I know, that the captain of our Nile boat, when he 
calls me indiscriminately Hawagee or Sidi, in his most 
respectful approaches, does not apj)ly to me a term of con- 
tempt, and that our dragoman, who has resided in England 
long enough to learn the usages of English society, does not 
mean to insult me, when as a native Egyptian speaking to 
Egyptians, he calls me Hawagee. I must repeat that I 
have never met with a rebuff from Mussulmen, not even 
while entering a place of prayer or the tomb of a saint — 
nor with any expression of contempt. Their houses, indeed, 
are mostly kept inviolate, and their sacred places, like those 
of the Roman Catholics in Europe, can be entered only by 
complying with certain customs ; but, whatever may be their 
domestic or rehgious usages, the Mussulmen in the villages 
and towns along the Nile are not uncivil toward Christian 
travellers. The traveller is a Hawagee, because, from the 
nature of oriental commerce, the merchant is so frequently 
a traveller. 

We have uniformly found the people well disposed, though 
frequently clamorous for " haclcsMsh" — which, Hke ^apenny 
in Ireland, is the universal beggar-cry. of Egypt, — some- 
timeaa little timid, and sometimes rather indifferent to our 
most courteous salutations. Only in a few instances have 
we seen any indications of vice in the villages, or expe- 



MANNERS OP THE PEOPLE. 69 

rienced any annoyance tliat interfered with the general 
inspection which we had in view. In a few cases there has 
been a marked disposition to show us kind attentions, espe- 
• cially on the part of the Copts. This is owing partly to the 
fact that the hated enrolment for the army is now going 
forward, and these simple-hearted people imagine that the 
all potent English can somehow do something at head-quar- 
ters to exempt a husband, a son, or a brother from conscrip- 
tion. Sometimes, too, our wits are put to the test by appli- 
cations for medical aid, which one of our party commonly 
disposes of by a potion of red pepper, disguised in sugar. 
This never fails to work a cure. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DESERT A^'D THE EAILROAD. 

The first view of the great Lybian desert, which some 
fifty miles north of Cairo encroaches upon the very bank 
of the Nile, impressed us powerfully by its contrast with the 
richness of soil we had hitherto seen. We went on shore, 
and began to traverse the sea of sand, hoping to gain a ridge 
that would command a distant prospect. But the ridge 
receded as we advanced, and after an hour's walk, we 
seemed no nearer than when we started, for there was 
nothing by which the eye could measure distances. How- 
ever, from a slight elevation which we gained, we saw 
before us an immense arid waste, stretching as far as the 
eye could reach, but broken into ridges by sand drifts, where 
the whirlwind pr the sirocco had spent their fiiry. It was a 
solemn and impressive sight. Yet even in this waste were 
signs of life. Here and there a few stinted shrubs marked 
where the sand was a recent deposit upon a good soil, and 
the sight of a little girl tending a soHtary calf far from any 
human habitation, showed us how tenacious is the poor 
Egyptian peasant of every inch of fruitfulness. The feather 
of an eagle, and the feather of a dove, that lay upon the 
sand, were suggestive of a hfe-struggle that had here been 
waged between the victim and the destroyer. 

But most affecting was the sight of a whole village 
deserted and buried by the sand, even the sycamores and 
the palms that had been planted and cherished to shield it 



THE DESEKT AND THE RAILKOAD. 71 

from the desert, being covered with its drifts. The desert 
has here advanced upon the Nile, and has buried the old 
alluvium under twenty feet of sand. In some places the 
grain of this sand is as fine as powder ; in others it resem- 
bles rather a fine gravel, and is compact and hard. An 
unceasing conflict is waged between the desert and the river. 
A huge trench or canal has been dug and filled with water 
to preserve what remains of fertihty at intervals along the 
western shore. Upon the opposite bank all is fertility. 

Is there not here a symbol of that world of human hearts 
where flows the river of divine mercy — the river of God 
that is full of water, ever flowing, ever free, bearing in its 
bosom the riches of infinite, eternal love ; — and yet while 
on one side all is fat and flourishing, upon the other, within 
reach of the same water, all is dry and desolate ; the empty 
sands ever drifting and drifting, and choking and burying 
what the river would fertiHze and bless. Here and there is 
a spot redeemed by the river from the desert, and made 
bright and cheerful amid the surroundmg desolation ; — but 
there is many a tract also, once watered by the river, now 
swallowed up in the desert, — all kindly influences gone, all 
signs of hfe extinct, — waste, desolate, appalling ! 

From the desert, the triumph of desolation, we turned to 
examine upon the opposite shore the embankment of the 
railroad, the liighway of modern civilization from England 
to the East. What a violation is it of the laws of associa- 
tion and of poetry, to introduce a railroad into Egypt ! But 
this the Pasha is doing, and literally with the force of an 
army, for a large detachment of soldiers, suspected of dis- 
affection, have been ordered to the ignominious field of the 
fellahs. 

The railroad from Alexandria to Cairo passes through 
the Delta, crossing the Damietta branch at its head. The 
work is in progress at several points along the Delta, the 



72 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

grading being done by hand, and the timber and stone 
carried on the backs of camels or of men. But the most 
wonderful part of this great work is at the head of the 
Delta — the bridge by which it is to cross the Nile, which 
here divides into two great branches. This work was begun 
many years ago for quite another purpose — as a harrage 
or dam, to facilitate the irrigation of the surrounding country 
during the Jow stage of the river, and to hold back the 
water for the same purpose when the river is high. The 
barrage is already comjDleted over the Damietta branch, and 
that over the Rosetta branch is nearly so ; the former con- 
sists of sixteen arches, each thirty feet broad by about sixty 
in height, and a central arch nearly a hundred feet in width ; 
the latter has twenty-four arches of thirty feet, and a similar 
central arch. The main arches are to be kept always open, 
but the lateral ones are to be closed when the water is 
needed to feed the canals for the surrounding region. The 
railroad is to cross by the Damietta bridge, and to be 
carried up the east bank of the river to Cairo. This work 
is built very substantially of hewn stone, and is ornamented 
with slender brick turrets in the minaret style, whose tops 
and angles are of stone. This style of architecture would 
be very pretty for factories and other public buildings in the 
United States. Indeed, some church-steeple committees 
would find a minaret a prettier model than a tadpole. 

The abutments of this bridge are works of amazing 
solidity ; yet it may be doubted whether in an alluvial soil, 
with no foundation of rock, they can endure the pressure 
of a swift and mighty river, forever shifting its current and 
undermining its banks. The general appearance of the 
barrage reminds one of the High Bridge at Harlem, though 
this is a more substantial and a more elegant work than 
that. The current of the Nile here runs with great swift- 
ness, fully equal to that of the Piscataqua at Portsmouth, 



THE DESERT AND THE RAILROAD. 73 

and it is difficult for boats to pass through the arch of the 
barrage in a strong wind. Going up, thej are assisted by a 
stationary boat furnished with ropes and pulleys. 

The neighborhood of this work presented a scene of great 
activity. A detachment of troops was stationed in barracks 
on the plain, to preserve order. All the inhabitants of the 
adjacent village seemed to be gathered in an out-door 
bazaar, and at the distance of a mile^heir chattering could 
be heard like the confusion of Babel. There was an iron 
foundry on the bank, and two huge steam pile-drivers were 
anchored in the river. Gangs of men, of about twenty 
each, with an overseer to every gang, were carrying earth 
in baskets on their shoulders half a mile, to raise the railway 
grade to the level of the bridge. There was not a wheel- 
harrow or a cart to be seen. All the earth used in the 
construction of this vast pile was carried in half bushel 
baskets on the shoulders of men, who tramp along to the 
measure of a monotonous song. In another place half 
naked men were mixing clay with straw, and shaping it into 
bricks to be baked in the sun. So no doubt the Israelites 
labored under their taskmasters when they built E-ameses 
just hereabouts, more than three thousand years ago. At 
evening a large company of laborers waded from an island 
to their homes on the opposite shore, carrying their scanty 
clothing on their heads. Cairo shone in the setting sun 
with its lofty minarets and its rock-built citadel. 



CHAPTER IX. 

"CAIK^ THE MAGNIFICENT." 

Nine days of sailing and pulling broiiglit us from Alex- 
andria to Grand Cairo — the " Cairo of the Caliphs, the 
superb town, the Holy City, the delight of the imaginatio.n, 
greatest among the great, whose splendor and opulence 
made the Prophet smile." Friends w^ho followed us a week 
after in the steamer, had reached the capital in twenty-four 
hours, but they had seen nothing of the Nile. We were 
satisfied. Mounting donkeys at Boulak, the port of the 
city, we rode through a broad avenue of sycamores and 
acacias, for a mile and a half, and passing a guarded gate- 
way, halted before an English hotel, facing the grand public 
square and gardens of the capital. A grand square indeed 
it is, that same Uzbek^eh ■ — an area of forty or fifty acres, 
adorned with palms, acacias, and gorgeous flowers, and 
intersected by fine broad paths, — all open to the public 
without restriction. There is no fence about it, but a neat 
stone trench, about four feet wide and six in depth, sur- 
rounds it upon all sides, and conveys the water of the Nile, 
not only to refresh the gardens, but to cool the air of the 
city. Here the gorgeousness of the East first bursts upon 
you. The " Arabian Nights' Entertainments " now begin. 
That which was shadowed forth as you sauntered under the 
acacias and palms without the gates of Alexandria towards 
Pompey's Pillar, opens w^ith all its storied magnificence in 
the Uzbekeeh of Grand Cairo. 



I 



CAIRO THE MAGNIFICENT. 75 

But you will break the charm if you turn at once into 
the Frank quarter — if you go over to the corner where 
Walker sells ginger-nuts, mint candy, and patent English 
bread, " warranted to keep ; " and from there, instead of the 
bazaar, enter the new street, thirty feet wide, all lined with 
garish French, English, and Italian shops, displaying choice 
perfumery, and " ready-made linen " from Paris and Lon- 
don, in a land that to your fancy Avas always robed in fine 
linen of embroidered work, and perfumed with the choicest 
aromatics of the East. Luckily, the sun compels the occu- 
pants to roof over this patent new street with mats and 
palm branches, a la hazaar ; and though carriages do dash 
through it, they have not yet excluded the donkeys and the 
camels that stubbornly or scornfully stand their ground at 
the hazard of their shins. And, moreover, since the modern 
invention of trucks and carts has not yet been fairly paxmed 
upon Cairo, even the patent new street of European shops 
must be sprinkled by the water carrier spirting the muddy 
Nile from a goat-skin under his arm. 

But what a grief and vexation it will be to future travel- 
lers to find the Grand Cairo transformed into a miniature 
London, Pai'is, or New York ; — to find Aladdin's lamp dis- 
placed by corporation gas, and the dromedary run down by 
the snorting locomotive, " express " from Calcutta with Her 
Majesty's mails ; — to find the beauteous tinted Orient made 
murky by tall factory chimneys, and " the superb town, the 
delight of the imagination," graded, and levelled, and squared, 
and paved by the march of improvement. Is all poetry 
and all romance to be driven from the world by steam ? Is 
the Bible itself — here the most truthful and picturesque of 
books — to lose its living freshness, and become a mere 
history of the East that was? Would that this people 
might have the Gospel without having the "Nineteenth 
Century ; " that they might live by the spirit and precepts 



76 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of Christ, and still wear the kaftan and the turban, and sit 
cross-legged on a divan, and sip coffee out of tiny cups, and 
trade leisurely and poetically in little cubbies in the bazaar, 
like children playing shop, without ever seeing the Times 
or the Daily News, or learning the price of stocks and the 
" very latest telegraphic intelligence from the special agent 
of the Associated Press." Lack-a-day, what shall the west- 
ern traveller do, who travels six thousand miles to find the 
Grand Cairo "improved?" So don't drive round by 
Walker's corner, but turn youi* donkey into this little arch, 
that you must stoop to enter, and that looks like somebody's 
front gate, and follow up the alley, turning all the sharp 
corners, and twisting round and round, and crowding up 
against the wall, to make room for a donkey or a camel 
loaded with water-skins, or for a fine lady buried in a huge 
inflated sack of silk, with a pair of gold or silver eyelets 
peering through a long white veil of richest lace, and shin- 
ing slippers, covered Math embroidery, peeping out from full 
laced pantalets, that droop over a saddle of soft, rich Tur- 
key carpets ; the whole pile — Turkey carpets, Indian sUk 
balloon, Persian lace. Cashmere scarf, Ophir goggles, and 
Morocco slippers — preceded and followed by a train of 
meek attendants, in fancy turbans and glossy beards, pre- 
figuring the inauguration of " "Women's Rights," in Bloomer 
costume, enthroned over universal donhey-dom. Now you 
begin to see the East. But jog along, straining your neck 
to catch a glimpse of the blue streak of sky, up, up, through 
the crevice where the overhanging balconies of lattice-work 
and palisaded roofs do not quite meet, and wondering 
whether within these walls are the marble courts and open 
fountains, and the double arches resting upon single col- 
umns, and the silk divans, and the windows and lanterns 
of stained glass, and the little black slaves in red and 
yellow slippers, gliding about with coffee in golden cups 



CAIRO THE MAGNIFICENT. 77 

upon silver platters, and with rose-scented latakia in nar- 
gilehs glistening with rubies — of all which you have read 
in story-books, but which you never expected to see, and 
cannot well contrive to see even now. So still jog on, your 
donkey picking his way among the pipe-bowls of reclining 
Turks at the gates and by the coffee-houses, till at length 
you reach that grand repository of Oriental wealth and 
magnificence — the Turkish bazaar. But no donkey must 
amble here ; and so, dismounting, you walk among piles of 
silk and cashmere, compressed into little closets, four feet 
by six, amber mouth-pieces, jewelled pipe-stems and bowls, 
golden coffee-cups, displayed in little cases of glass, per- 
fumes of Arabia, gums and spices of the Indies, all ranged 
before these diminutive stalls, where by day the owner sits 
cross-legged over his concentrated wealth, and by night 
locks it up with a wooden lock upon a wooden door, and 
knows that it is safe. 

Turning into an open, square court, you see all around it 
a row of stalls filled with rolls of carpet of the softest wool 
and the richest patterns; but you may not even ash the 
prices now — for there; upon a carpet spread in the middle 
of the court, are the twenty proprietors of all this stocky 
kneeling in rows, with their faces toward the east, bowing 
their foreheads to the earth, counting their fingers and their 
heads, and reciting after a priest, who kneels before them, 
the formula of evening prayer. Not for all the Indies 
would one of these devout followers of the Prophet now 
give a word or thought to secular things. In that rapt gaze 
toward Mecca, they see not your wondering gaze at them. 
So you pass on through the Greek bazaar, the Armenian, 
and the Copt, where men of different nations, different cos- 
tumes, different religions, engage in a traffic which is com- 
mon and free to all. 

From the bazaar you go to the slave-market. But you 
7* 



78 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT, 

may not look upon the fair daughters of Circassia reserved 
for Turkish harems, since the Pasha has done away with 
the scandal of exposing these doomed women to the gaze 
of every stranger. Yet you may look on the black daugh- 
ters of Nubia, and have them gather round you in their 
rags and beg you to buy them, because any change would 
be to them better than to remain in that den. Perhaps 
you might here find the daughter of some grief-stricken 
Hassan ; perhaps of some palm-tree prince, who has met 
the misfortunes of war ; — at all events, you would see 
through this grease, and rags, and matted hair, a girl, a 
woman with a woman's heart, and a soul yearning for the 
freedom of its native home ; you would see a concentration 
of misery that would make the heart of any but a Haley 
bleed. Yet it is no worse here than anywhere. Egypt 
still encourages the domestic slave-trade for the sake of the 
revenue, and hundreds of slaves are brought from Nubia 
down the Nile. In this respect the Egypt of to-day is the 
Egypt of three thousand years ago. " A wonderful fulfil- 
ment of prophecy ! " exclaims some lower-law divine ; " it 
was predicted that the children of Ham should be servants 
to their brethren. How wonderful are the ways of Provi- 
dence ! " Yes, but there is no such prediction in the Bible. 
The curse was invoked upon one only of the sons of Ham 
— Canaan by name — and it was fulfilled ages ago, in the 
subjection of Canaan by the Israelites. The sons of Cush, 
that founded the great Assyrian Empire, have never served 
their brethren ; and some of the descendants of Ham, who 
founded Egypt, do not fulfil that curse, by enslaving other 
descendants of Ham, who wandered a few degrees further 
south. But what has slavery to do with Cairo ? Nothing, 
of course, except sentimentally. So jog along, donkey, up 
to the citadel. 

Here is the old palace of Mohammed Ali. This is an 




A STREET IN CAIRO. 



CAIRO THE MAGNIFICENT. 79 

indifferent building, with but one handsome room, — that 
used as an audience chamber, — but interesting from its 
association with the modern Reformer of Egypt, the tyrant 
of her people, and the wholesale butcher of her Mameluke 
princes. Mohammed Ali lavished his adornments upon the 
palace at Alexandria — the city which he made his real 
capital ; — yet not wholly there, for this unfinished mosque 
that crowns the eminence with its tasteful minarets, its 
quadrangular corridor of forty-three alabaster columns, 
with richly ornamented capitals, and the sheen of alabaster 
walls around the whole interior court of prayer, — shows a 
taste in the Mussulman Viceroy that would not discredit 
St. Peter's -and the Vatican. Indeed, the dome of the 
mosque, though less grand than St. Peter's, is more aerial, 
and, at first view, more effective, because the eye embraces 
it on the moment of entering the building, and never loses 
it. Here, too, within the mosque, is the tomb of Mohammed 
Ali, also unfinished, but conceived in the most elaborate 
style of oriental architecture. 

But from the windows of this mosque, and the balcony 
of the citadel, how superb the view of Cairo and the Nile ! 
You. are on an elevation of several hundred feet above the 
city, which is grouped at your feet, with its three hundred 
minarets, like a fairy scene. Beyond you see the ever- 
winding Nile, and you follow its valley for a reach of forty 
miles, from north to south. Opposite are the pyramids, and 
so transparent is the atmosphere that it seems as if you 
could step across the ten miles that intervene, and plant 
yourself upon their massive sides. Behind you are the 
picturesque, mosque-like tombs of the " Caliphs ; " and fur- 
ther in the rear the mountains of the Mohuttam flank the 
city with their bald, sheer, glaring mass of limestone, and 
shield it from the sands of the desert. 

Returning to the great square, we meet a juggler at his 



80 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tricks, 'and a shrewd Abyssinian improvisatore, entertaining 
a group of men and boys with tragedy and comedy in min- 
iature, relieved with snatches of native songs. 

Having dined at Shepherd's, we donkey back to Boulak 
to sleep on the boat. This Boulak is itself a town of con- 
siderable size, though of recent growth. The river has 
receded from Cairo — which stands upon its ancient bluff — 
and a canal for irrigation now marks its former bed ; while 
Boulak, ranging along its present bank, serves as a port. 
Here are immense areas, in which grain and beans are 
piled up like mountains of sand, no doubt as they were in 
the days of Joseph. They need no covering where it never 
rains. Here, too, are piles of large, fresh, luscious oranges, 
at twenty cents the hundred, and boats unlading at the 
bank, are swelling these enormous piles. There is life and 
activity everywhere. But here, too, is squalor and filth ; 
and on the way hither we passed a cluster of miserable 
hovels, around which ragged men and naked children, 
swarming with flies, were sunning themselves ; and on that 
splendid avenue of acacias and sycamores were little girls, 
scraping together with their hands the refuse of passing 
animals, to be dried for fuel to cook their scanty meals. 
Alas ! all is not poetry in the East ; here is sorrow and 
suffering in contrast with a magnificence unparalleled in the 
New World. 

The Nile is made to fructify the great plain around Cairo, 
and to water the public square and gardens within the city, 
as well as the palace gardens and plantations of the Viceroy 
without the walls, by the force of steam, which pumps up 
its water and pours it into an arterial system of canals. 
When the Sabbath came, it was refreshing once more to 
attend public worship in the English tongue. A little 
chapel in Cairo, under the auspices of the British Embassy, 
opens its doors to all strangers, and its excellent minister, 



GAIRO THE MAGNIFICENT. 81 

Rev. Mr. Lieder, tliough speaking in broken Englisli, con- 
ducts the services to edification, and preaches with much 
acceptance. I was astonished to see so few EngKsh pres- 
ent, — only ten or twelve out of a hundred or more then 
probably in Cairo. Most of those at the hotel seemed eager 
to make preparation for the voyage up the Nile. 

We bid good-bye to Cairo for the present, hoping to have 
a week or more there on our return. With replenished 
stores, and a brisk north wind, we set out joyously for a 
four weeks' voyage up the Nile, to the city of " the Hundred 
Gates." 



CHAPTER X. 

SCENERY OP THE NILE — DAY AND NIGHT. 

The first view of Nile scenery is novel and picturesque ; 
and though the novelty soon fades, the picturesqueness 
remains ever the same. In the Delta, the banks of the 
river are level, and, for about fifty miles south of Atfeh, 
they are clothed with verdure equally upon either side. 
Beyond this, the Lybian desert on the west, sweeps down 
to the water's edge ; but on the east, the rich alluvial soil 
extends as far as the eye can reach. Fields of wheat, 
clover, cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, poppy, overspread 
this level area, divided only by the little artificial canals for 
irrigation, or by the natural growth of the crops. A fence 
is rarely seen in Egypt, and a walled field never. At 
intervals of two or three miles, groves of palm-trees indicate 
the presence of a village, long before its low range of huts 
can be distinguished ; for the palm-tree is cultivated only in 
the neighborhood of villages, where its fruit can be pro- 
tected, and its shade enjoyed. Here and there the wide- 
spreading sycamore stands in modest pleasing contrast by 
the side of the lofty fan-crested palm, or alone overshadows 
the water-wheel on the bank of the river. Sometimes the 
diminutive sont, or acanthus, with its prickly bough and 
dangling bean, is clustered about the village bazaar, or a 
grove of acacias droop "their yellow hair" along the 
avenue to some larger town. Besides these, the Nile 



SCENERY OF THE NILE. 83 

knows no variety of tree or shrub. It has no "wood" 
along its shore ; only the palm-tree is everywhere, solitary 
or in clusters, and is ever full of beauty and of poetry. 

In the Delta, the white minaret — always graceful, how- 
ever rude — peers out from the palms of every village. 
But on the upper Nile, the villages are too small each to 
sustain a mosque, and the minaret adorns only the larger 
towns. These, seen in the distance, — their low rounded 
walls resembling the mounds and towers of a fortress — 
their minarets rising in aerial circles, with slender galleries 
that terminate in points of arabesque — their tall palms 
gently waving over all — the river sweeping along their 
base, and the boundless verdure compassing them around, — 
are the pictured East, outdoing the painter's pencil, which 
was never dipped in such an atmosphere, or such a sky. 
But never was there so sad a contrast between picture and 
reality, as between an Arab village at a distance and an 
Arab village under your eye. If you would know the East 
only as a dreamy picture, and would keep it ever in the 
mind, as first seen in the Arabian Nights — a golden 
romance of love and beauty — then look upon it only from 
the deck of the dahaheeh, as you float or fly before the 
ever shifting, never changing palms. 

Tliirty miles north of Cairo, the pyramids, that seem to 
bound the desert on the Lybian side, first bring the empty 
grandeur of the works of man on this old architectural soil 
into contrast with the boundless wealth, the ceaseless benefi- 
cence, and the awful desolation of nature, in the plain, the 
river, and the desert. I was surprised at the boldness and 
sharpness of their outline, and the hugeness of their bearing 
from such a distance, so unlike the diminutive 'i hay-stack " 
air sometimes imputed to them. Then, day after day, they 
filled all their mighty history as the eye sought them, earli- 
est at morning, and latest at night. For four thousand 



84 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

years these mysterious mountains of granite have been an 
essential feature in the scenery of the Nile. 

As you leave Cairo for the upper Nile, the mojmtains 
of the Arabian Desert sweep down to the river-side, and 
thenceforth flank its eastern bank the whole distance to 
Thebes, and, indeed, to Assouan — sometimes receding four 
or five miles from the river, sometimes jutting a huge mass 
of limestone right into its bosom. By and by, as you go 
southward, the Lybian chain also closes in upon the west ; 
and in this narrow valley, on an average five or six miles 
wide, flows the Nile. And here is all of upper Egypt — 
the alluvial deposits of the river spread out into broad plains 
or piled up in narrow strips, and covered as below, with 
wheat and clover, beans, onions, lentils, cucumbers, corn, 
cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, and poppy, with flocks 
of sheep and goats, with herds of buffaloes and droves of 
camels, wdth low mud villages overspread with palms, or 
more ambitious towns adorned with graceful minarets and 
acacia groves. 

These mountains are composed principally of a friable 
limestone, of a yellowish white color, and are, in part, 
covered with the drifting sands of the desert. They vary 
from two hundred feet to six or eight hundred feet in height, 
and at Thebes are upwards of twelve hundred. They have 
no peaks, except around the plain of Thebes, but their 
summits are uniformly a flat table-rock, ranging at different 
elevations. At certain bends of the river, where they form 
the shore, their configuration is peculiarly bold and massive ; 
again, they lift themselves grandly in the distance. There 
is not a particle of verdure of any kind to be seen upon the 
whole range, for the five or six hundred miles that it follows 
the river upon either side ; not a shrub, or a blade of grass, 
or a vestige of any living thing. For six thousand years 
they have bleached under the sun that withers the deserts 



SCENERY OF THE NILE. 85 

which they, as solemn sentinels, keep back from the river. 
Many of these mountains are tombs. Within them are 
buried the dead of cities, whose very sites are lost under the 
encroaching sands of the desert. In one sense, the Egyp- 
tians made preparation for death the great work of Hfe. 
Believing in immortality, they took every precaution to 
provide for the body a safe resting-place, and to preserve it 
from decay. They hewed deep chambers in the sohd rock, 
and placed in these the massive sarcophagi that inclosed the 
embalmed body, and then walled up the whole against 
curious or profane intruders. And now the mountains 
stand, with thek rifled and disfigured tombs, to proclaim that 
God's works only can endure. The river flows peacefully 
at their base or within their wider circuit, but the cities that 
once crowded its banks are found only in dusty mounds of 
broken brick and sun-baked mud, in fragments of massive 
pillars wrought into modern village walls, or strewn solitary 
over the plain, or in temples, whose buried columns serve to 
mark the solemn march of time. Only the mountains stand 
unchanged ; — monuments of a dim and hoary antiquity, 
that gather about their fronts the silence that reigns over 
the Egypt of the Pharaohs. Yet at times these white, 
glaring mountains enfold the Nile so gently, so gracefully, 
and seem to throw around it a guardianship so sacred, that 
they borrow from it a beauty not their own, and you lose 
their nakedness in the flowing river and the waving palm. 

Such is the scenery of the Nile. A solemn beauty 
pervades it, of which the loving eye and the thoughtful 
mind can never weary. It is the panorama of hfe ; not 
of individual life only, but of all human life ; a panorama 
of the race and of time — a symbol, too, of an ever flowing 
eternity robed with beauty and with majesty. No canvas 
can reproduce it ; it must be seen in order to be felt ; and 
when seen, all other forms of earth and air and sky fade 
8 



86 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

from the view, while this unfolds endlessly the palm, the river, 
and the mountain, — the mountain, the river, and the palm. 
Daj and night recur upon the Nile with a rehable beauty 
unknown to our western skies. How strange it seems to 
count with certainty upon the weather, or, rather, not to 
take the weather into the account in any of your plans for 
the morrow ! It may be a few degrees colder or warmer ; 
there may be a shade of mist upon the river for an hour in 
the morning ; possibly, a cloud for a few moments, or even 
a few hours, may hide the sun ; there may be wind or there 
may be calm ; some such little alternations as you can meet 
at once by a slight change of dress ; — but that the sun will 
shine, you know for certain. Sometimes, at evening, the 
sky looks red and lowering ; and in any other climate you 
would prophesy rain. But you might as well call spirits 
iiom the vasty deep as prophesy rain in Egypt. The sun 
will assuredly come forth, as a bridegroom from his chamber, 
and rejoice, as a strong man, to run a race. Here, day by 
day, he moves without dimness or obstruction. " His going 
forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit to the 
ends of it ; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof" 
The greatest contrast in the Nile day, is between the dense, 
sultry, oppressive silence of a noontide when the sun glares 
upon the mountain, and the desert, and the river, and the 
plain, and no thing of hfe moves, and no palm branch stirs ; 
and the joyous life of a noon when the north wind, blowing 
against the current, lashes the river into M'^aves, stirs every 
leaf of every palm, and gives men and cattle freedom to live 
and move in the very face of the sun. Yet, to know the 
Nile, and to dream its dreams, one must sit silent under the 
breathless palm, and look upon the molten river, and the 
scorching mountain, in the wide-glaring noon. In Egypt 
only can one know the day : — 

"Day after daj a gusMng fount of praise." 



DAY AND NIGHT. 87 

How brilliant the sunrise of each "morning without 
clouds." Light is everywhere. It suffuses nature with its 
glow. There are no contrasts of color, for there are no 
clouds or mists through which the " law of refraction " can 
make colors. There are but two colors in the morning sky 
of Egypt : — the bright golden sun — not the dull yellow 
metal, but the lustrous gold, fresh from the die ; and the 
liquid blue, in whose unfathomable depths it floats dreamily 
along. Floats dreamily — for, though there is no cloud or 
mist, there is a drapery of light, that reveals the sun as 
through a gauze of faintest saffron. This is the phenome- 
non of sunshine in the east ; you do not seem to see the 
sun, but sun-light everywhere : — 

" Bright effluence of bright essence increate." ^ 

How gorgeous the sunset of each evening, when the 
vapors drawn from the river gather about the Lybian 
mountains, as beautiful transparencies of dissolving tints, 
while the morning robe of saffron droops down from the 
sky upon the river and the Arabian chain ! The Nile sunset 
perpetually varies. For more than sixty days in succession 
I have looked upon it, without detecting a resemblance in 
any of its features from day to day, save in that exquisite 
zodiacal light that lingers in plaintive beauty when the sun 
is gone. 

There is no "corporation moonlight" on the Nile; no 
moonlight in the almanac that is not in the sky, and when 
the city fathers leave the streets to mist and dingy dark, 
because if there is no moon there "ought to be." In Egypt 
the moon of the almanac is always in the sky. 

" Day to day doth pour out speech ; 
Night to night doth show forth knowledge." 

Or, as the old Psalter has it, "One night certifieth 



88 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

another." You are always sure of a cloudless night ; and 
a night in which the atmosphere retains its transparency 
and its liquid depth, and but moderates its tone without 
losing its lustre. Then the Pleiades dispense their sweet 
influences, and Orion looses the bands of his glittering robe ; 
then Mazzaroth comes forth in his season, and Arcturus 
rides glorious amid his sons. But above all, here the moon 
" walks in brightness," and gives a light so pure, so intense, 
and yet so soft and mild, that night becomes a second day, 
in lustre without heat. " Established forever as a faithful 
witness in heaven," throughout the East the moon is the 
measure of time; while here only, under such a moon, would 
men " burn incense to the queen of heaven." The traveller 
who would see Karnac so as to feel all the past, should not 
fail to visit it at the full moon. 

Our day upon the Nile has hardly more of variation than 
the external air and sky. We rise at no hour ; — for no 
one watch on board the Lotus answers to another ; — so we 
take no note of time, but having risen to the sun, we greet 
the rezs, the steersman, and the crew with a Sabdl Khayr, 
and receive in turn their salutations. The professor 
culinaire says modestly, " Good morning," and kisses his 
hand ; Hassan touches his pipe to his forehead. If the boat 
is lying to or dragging, we saunter along the shore till hailed 
for breakfast, which awaits us when the cook-boy returns 
from the nearest village with his jar of milk. After break- 
fast, when there is opportunity, we stroll along the fields and 
among the villages, and study Egyptian life ; or, walking 
ahead of the lazy boat, sit under a palm and lose ourselves 
in musing till she comes. Most travellers divert themselves 
with shooting the tame pigeons along the shore, and an 
American whom I met commiserated me for not having a 
gun. If the wind favors, we snatch a modicum of exercise 
from the contracted deck; gaze awhile upon the panorama 



DAY AND NIGHT. 89 

of tlie river, the mountain, and the pahn, and then betake 
ourselves to books and pens, under a net spread to keep off 
the myriads of flies, that here cluster in the eyes and carry 
a virus in their sting. Egypt still swarms with this plague 
of Pharaoh. Men grow strangely hungry on the Nile, and 
dinner comes with a welcome. Then dream-life follows, 
and lighter reading, and grave discussion or smaller talk, 
until at evening, sunset glows under the palms or across the 
deck ; — but always sunset in its gorgeous beauty. Then 
night shuts in, and we gaze awhile upon the moon and stars ; 
kill poison spiders ; then hunt bugs and fleas, and finally 
lie down to sleep. 

8* 



CHAPTER XI. 

MINIEH A SUGAR FACTOET VISIT TO A BEY. 

In going up the Nile the traveller should always take 
advantage of the north wind for making progress towards 
his highest destination, otherwise the loss of one day may 
occasion him the loss of ten. If the wind blows from the 
right quarter he should not stop to see either tombs or 
temples, but hasten on to Thebes and the Cataracts. If he 
loses the wind he can make no headway up the stream, but 
by the tedious process of "tracking." Coming down the 
river, he has always the current in his favor, and he can 
then visit at his leisure objects that were omitted on the 
upward voyage. Yet on his return he must guard against 
the temptation to hurry back to Cairo for letters from home. 
While in Egypt, he should see Egypt thoroughly. The 
failure of the north wind gave us frequent opportunities of 
going ashore, while creeping up the river. 

One of the most picturesque towns upon the Nile is 
Minieh, about a hundred and sixty miles south of Cairo, 
on the west bank of the river. It is situated on a high 
bank, on the edge of a vast fertile plain, and is adorned 
with minarets, which, notwithstanding the roughness of 
their materials and the imperfection of their architectural 
details, look aerial and beautiful in the distance. Tall 
palm-trees are scattered over the plain and interspersed 
among the houses, and a double row of acacias, drooping 
" with golden hair," adorn the bank for half a mile above the 



A SUGAR FACTORY. 91 

town. Opposite, the Arabian mountains rear their cream- 
colored leafless masses along the shore, while in the rear 
perspective looms the Lybian chain along the western des- 
ert. As you approach the town, a bend of the river brings 
it into the crown of an arch that rests upon the mountains, 
while the water multiplies its palms and minarets like a 
quivering mirror of molten silver. I remember no view 
that approaches it so nearly as that of Belle vue, in Iowa, 
on the Upper Mississippi. There is the same lay of the 
land and of the town, and the same graceful sweep of the 
river, but while the bluffs there are verdant, the mountains 
here are bare ; and on the other hand, at Belle vue are 
wanting the minarets and the palms. After all, there is 
but one Nile. But the interior of Bellevue, though it is a 
town of recent growth in the far West, presents an aspect 
of neatness, of comfort, of thrift, which is wholly wanting 
in any village on the Nile. 

Minieh, however, exhibits more of these features than 
most Egyptian towns. Many of its houses facing the river 
are of burnt brick, two stories high, with roofs, glass win- 
dows, and balconies; and in the suburbs are a few resi- 
dences that would not disgrace the banks of the Connecticut. 
But these belong to European residents and to government 
officials. The rest of the town exhibits the usual appear- 
ance of a narrow, tortuous bazaar, and little crooked lanes 
of one story mud-brick huts. Minieh has one feature that 
gives it interest at the expense of picturesqueness. Two 
tall, well-built chimneys, one of which, in the form of a 
hexagon, is as beautiful as a brick chimney can be made — 
point out the site of a great steam sugar manufactory which 
the Pasha has established at this place. The adjacent fields 
are planted with sugar-cane, which is watered by means of 
a steam forcing-pump at the river. The cane grows luxu- 
riantly, and the sugar made from it is of an excellent 



92 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

quality. The macliinery used in the refinery is of Parisian 
manufacture, and of the very highest order. The general 
management of the establishment is in French hands, though 
many a bagged and turbaned overseer glides about in 
pointed slippers, and many a half-clad Arab works among 
the cane, at the furnace, or in the treacle, for one piastre or 
jive cents a day, payable one half in money and one half 
in the expressed juice of the cane, with the privilege of 
eating sugar-cane when hungry. After the cane is pressed, 
it is dried in the sun and used for fuel, and this with the 
addition of dry cornstalks, suffices to feed the engine. 
Fine grained sugar and pellucid rock candy are manufac- 
tured at this establishment. 

As we stood by the door, one of the superintendents 
accosted us and invited us to enter. He was a Nubian of 
the blackest die, but was elegantly attired, and had an air 
more gentlemanly than servile. Around him stood two or 
three Copts, well costumed also, and wearing in their belts 
the " writer's inkhorn " — the usual badge of their profes- 
sion as scribes. We availed ourselves of the invitation, 
and went through the whole factory. Our entrance made 
quite a sensation, especially as we were accompanied by a 
lady in American dress. As for myself, with a crimson 
tarbouch, an unshorn chin, and Joseph's "coat of many 
colors," I could not affect to represent any particular nation- 
ality. Some waggish boys followed at the heels of the lady, 
twisting the faded blue tassel of an old tarbouch into a cari- 
cature of her natural and graceful curls ; and both men 
and boys assailed her vehemently for backshish (a gratuity). 
Even the dignified Nubian did not disdain to have an under- 
standing with our dragoman for a gratuity, which we, of 
course, designed to give him. How inveterate is this na- 
tional habit of begging, induced by the beggared condition 
of the people ! You find the same thing in Italy, from the 



VISIT TO A BET. '93 

same cause; indeed, I think Italy is even worse in this 
respect than Egypt. In France men are polite, and espe- 
cially public servants are attentive and polite, without look- 
ing for remuneration ; but in England, even the liveried 
porters of the National , Bank, and the servants of her 
Majesty in lace coats, and ruffs, and white-topped boots, do 
not disdain to hold out the hand for a shilling for opening 
a door. Americans are said to be the slaves of the dollar ; 
but they get the dollar by industry, enterprise, and labor, 
and not by the loafish begging of the Englishman for his 
shilling, the Italian for his paul, and the Egyptian for his 
piastre. My countrymen will pardon this digression for 
the national honor ! 

After we had seen the factory, our Nubian attendant 
inquired if we would like to call upon the Bey who has 
charge of this portion of the Pasha's estates and revenue, 
and who was then on a visit to the place in his own barge. 
The Bey is a chief servant, or minister in waiting, of the 
Pasha, and has the superintendence of a given department, 
with the privilege of being near the person of the Viceroy, 
as he in turn may approach the person of the Sultan at 
Constantinople. We found this dignitary in a barge of the 
nicest order, cushioned and curtained with all possible 
regard to comfort and to privacy. He was seated on a 
divan in a corner of the outer apartment, with his feet 
coiled gracefully under drooping folds of linen. His head 
was adorned with a white cap wreathed about with a shawl 
of green and red floss silk, which descended carelessly over 
his shoulders. As the morning was cold, he wore over his 
robe of silk and linen a full half cloak of a rich brown 
cloth. Beneath him was spread a very rich and elegant rug, 
and a small carpet adorned a patch of the cabin floor. Upon 
this rested a silver urn, elegantly chased, and filled with 
scented water, into one side of which was inserted a pipe- 



94 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

stem and bowl festooned with silk and golden threads, while 
a flexible tube, disposed in graceful coils, conducted . the 
fragrance of tobacco thus mollified to a mouth-piece of jew- 
elled amber. Six or eight servants robed in graceful cos- 
tume glided noiselessly to and fro, awaiting the least inti- 
mation from their master. As we entered the saloon, the 
Bey, without rising, touched his hand to his breast, his lips, 
and his forehead, and gracefully motioned us to be seated 
U2Don chairs disposed along the opposite side. He was 
apparently over fifty years of age, of a full habit, with a 
finely developed head, and a most benignant countenance. 
We all agreed that we had never seen a finer combination 
of dignity and grace, or a more courteous and affable salu- 
tation than welcomed us from the carpeted divan. The 
interview was one of much interest, because with the Bey it 
was evidently not a mere matter of civility. He was very 
desirous to learn about America and its institutions. We 
complimented him upon the flourishing condition of the fac- 
tory, the excellence of the machinery, and the quality of 
the sugar. One of our party, being the manufacturer of the 
celebrated "New York Mills" shirting, was able to give 
him full information respecting the cotton manufactures of 
America. The Bey was amazed at the quantity of cotton 
raised in the United States, and wished to know how this 
was ascertained. The system of newspapers, mails, mar- 
kets, etc. was then explained, which increased his astonish- 
ment. He was gratified to hear that in the United States 
any person could become as great a proprietor as the Pasha 
of Egypt. I suspect our dragoman, who loves to magnify, 
gave him to understand that Mr. W. was proprietor of a 
town and of pretty much all the cotton raised in the 
country. 

Some daguerreotypes pleased him greatly ; and after exam- 
ining one of a child, he said, devoutly, to the mother, " May 



VISIT TO A BEY. 95 

God bless your dear boy." He was much attracted by the 
lady of our party, and mquired whether Christians had more 
than one wife ; and when this was -explained, he wished to 
know if one marrying a second time could select a wife from 
the women of the country, or must take one of his own 
slaves. He was surprised to learn that we had no slaves. 
Coffee and pipes were served, and we bade his excellcnicy 
adieu. 



I 



CHAPTER XII. 

BIVER SAINTS AND COPTIC HERMITS. 

This morning our boat was blessed in the name of the 
Prophet. Going out on deck I saw there a young man appar- 
ently nineteen years of age, entirely innocent of clothing, 
dripping with water and shivering with cold. The first 
thought was, that he had been picked up from the river, 
and though saved from drowning was likely to die with 
chills ; but the great attention shown him by the reis and 
the sailors showed that he was a character of no ordinary 
importance. It presently transpired that he was a saint, 
who devotes his life to the study of the Koran, and lives on 
charity. He had a very thoughtful, meditative look — 
though bordermg a little upon stupor — which the sailors 
attributed to excess of study, and which seemed to excite in 
them mingled reverence and compassion. Each sailor con- 
tributed his mite in the small coin of the country, equal to 
half a cent, and the re'is bestowed on him a garment of 
some value, with one or two loaves of bread. The coin he 
stuiafed into his mouth, till his cheeks were distended ; the 
garment he bound about the crown of his head, and putting 
the bread on top of this, he plunged- into the river. He 
hardly spoke on board the boat, except to mutter some for- 
mula of benediction, after which the re'is and several of the 
crew accompanied him to the stern, where he dropped him- 
self into the water, and swam towards another boat, about 
half a mile behind us. He was a wonderful swimmer, and 



KIVER SAINTS AND COPTIC HERMITS. 97 

could stem the swift current of the Nile with apparent ease. 
This is accounted an evidence of his saintship. The 
sailors, who take to the water like ducks, say that such 
swimming in the cold water would kill them, but he swims 
by miracle. 

The Mohammedans, with all their hatred of image-wor- 
ship, are very superstitious. All along the Nile, you see 
the rude tombs of their sheiks and saints filled with votive 
offerings, just like the altars of the saints in Italy. They 
tell their beads, and believe in signs and omens. Withal 
they are intense fatalists in theory, though this does not 
seem to impair their freedom or their personal activity in 
any practical affairs. When this poor beggar-saint dies, he 
will be honored with a tomb that will become a place of 
pilgrimage for the neighborhood, and for passing sailors. A 
saint at Minieh is reputed to have power to prevent croco- 
diles^ from advancmg further down the Nile, by means of 
incantations that throw them upon their backs. 

But our religious privileges were not confined to a visit 
and a benediction from a Mohammedan saint. Later m 
the day we were boarded by a swimming deputation from a 
community of Coptic monks, the lingering and degenerate 
representatives of a system that once had in Egypt and its 
adjacent deserts as many convents and monasteries as there 
are days in the year, among which were institutions whose 
learning and piety enjoyed a world wide reputation. We 
encountered these priests " all shaven and shorn," as we 
were saihng under the brow of Gehel e Tayr, " the moun- 
tain of the bird " — a bald rugged rock, about half a mile 
in length, that rises perpendicularly out of the river to the 
height of two hundred feet. On the top of this mountain is 
a little mud-brick building known as the convent of " our 
Lady Mary the Virgin," which is occupied by about thirty 
Copts- belonging to some order of mendicant friars. When- 
9 



98 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

ever a boat appears in sight, the whole body turn out and 
line the brow of the mountain to hail it for charity, while 
two or three of the number clamber down the steep face 
of the mountain, and throwing off their black gowns and 
cowls, swim out to the boat to receive alms. How sad a 
representation of Christianity is made to a Mohammedan 
crew, by two or three great stout men, with shaven heads, 
sitting stark naked on the side of the boat, shivering with 
cold, and whining, " ana Christian ya Hawagee^'' " I am a 
Christian, O traveller." If you give them a few coppers 
they stuff these into their mouths, and if you give them 
bread they poise this upon their shorn crowns, and swim 
back to the mountain. They seem to have a great passion 
for empty bottles, which I suppose they sell at a neighbor- 
ing town. 

I learned from one of them that they have in the convent 
a copy of the Scriptures, but that few of them can read, and 
that they have prayers five times a day. One feels moved 
to give something to such pitiable objects, and yet that is a 
questionable charity which goes to countenance and sustain 
that system of " pious " mendicancy which has cursed the 
Christian world in Europe and throughout the East ; and 
especially to countenance a set of Christian loafers in the 
presence of Mohammedans, who despise these, though they 
honor their own swimming saints. The traveller who pat- 
ronizes such vagrants is regarded by the Mohammedans as 
identified with their religion ; and thus all Christians sink 
in their view to the level of these pitiable friars. Remem- 
bering the apostle's injunction that " if any would not work, 
neither should he eat " — an injunction aimed against the 
whole tribe of religious loafers — I felt that the application 
of a rope's end to the tawny backs of these mendicant 
" Christians " by a Mohammedan sailor, was about the 
reception they merited. The sailors are always forward to 
show their contempt for this amphibious species of Christians. 



EIVER SAINTS AND COPTIC HERMITS. 99 

The convent has attached to it a fine piece of ground on 
the opposite side of the river — the gift of the Pasha — and 
from this and the charity of travellers, its inmates supply 
their physical wants; while from their eyrie nest, about 
which the eagle hovers, overlooking the desert upon one 
side, and on the other the river and the plain, they have 
prayers read five times a day for the growth and comfort 
of their souls. To an imaginative, and possibly to some 
phases of a contemplative mind, this may appear to be an 
inviting form of religious life. But there is nothing in the 
New Testament to warrant such a life. When the Saviour 
gave himself to retirement and prayer in the mountains, he 
was leading an out-door life, and he took the night for this 
purpose, in order that he might be strengthened for the 
labors of the day among the multitude. He did not 
renounce his labors for the sake of solitude, but sought soli- 
tude as a brief refreshment from, and preparation for, the 
work that his Father had given him to do. Christianity is 
made for active service m an active world ; and while the 
life of the Christian, in its inmost springs and sources, is 
hid with Christ in God, and is fed by unceasing communion 
with its source, it is not a life hidden from the view of men 
in mountain caves and monastic cells. Even prayer 
becomes an empty form, when the observance of this as a 
speciality would separate one from all the duties of sociai 
life, and from all practical sympathy with humanity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SABBATHS ON THE NILE — A MISSIONARY INCIDENT. 

The land of Egypt has no Sabbath. In all the principal 
towns the Christian Sabbath is the great market day, when 
the people of the village bring their stock and produce to 
exchange for clothing, and other articles at the bazaar. 
Friday is the Mohammedan Sabbath — the special prayer 
day, when the mosques are open also for preaching. The 
day is kept after the fashion of a Sunday in continental 
Europe. The more scrupulous and devout close their little 
shops during the hours of prayer, and resort to the mosque 

— perhaps leaving some one upon the look-out for customers 

— and either return from the mosque to business, or give 
up the remainder of the day to lounging. At Ekhmim, one 
of the principal towns of Upper Egypt, where I chanced 
upon a Friday, though many shops in the bazaar were open, 
yet the large mosque was crowded with men who seemed 
devout in prayer and singing ; but no women were present, 
though these are sometimes admitted into secluded galleries. 
Generally a stranger finds no difficulty in entering a mosque 
if attended by some official of the place ; but he must put 
off his shoes at the door, and not tread the sacred ground, 
with what has touched the common dust. On Friday, work 
goes on in the fields as upon other days. Yet in Cairo, it is 
difficult to transact business on a Friday in the Mohamme- 
dan quarter, or on Saturday in the Jews' quarter, while on 



SABBATHS ON THE NILE. 101 

our Sabbath tbe Copts, Armenians, and other nominal 
Christians, who number in all seventj-five thousand, or 
more than one third of the population of the city, pay a 
decent regard to the day. At Alexandria and Cairo there 
is pubHc service on the Lord's day in the English tongue, 
according to the forms of the Church of England. At 
Cairo this is conducted by Rev. Mr. Leider, a German long 
resident in that city, who has made himself useful, not only 
to foreigners, but to the native Christians. 

In some of the villages of the Upper Nile the Copts are 
sufficiently numerous to have a church, and to maintain 
worship accordmg to their form ; but we never chanced to 
spend a Sabbath at such a village, and therefore I cannot 
speak of their observance of the day. 

But though the land of Egypt has no Sabbath, the 
traveller may enjoy his Sabbath in the midst of its darkness 
and desolation. Such is the power of association, that even 
in a strange land, and among scenes most foreign to the 
day, the Sabbath returns to the Christian traveller just as 
it is wont to come at home — a day of sacred rest. Our 
caj^tain Avas given to understand from the first, that we 
wished no labor to be done for us upon that day, and no 
unnecessary work to be done on board the boat, and the 
crew seemed to comprehend that it was our " prayer day." 
We always made it a day for social worship, which our 
dragoman attended. Our exercises were varied; some- 
times a familiar conference ; sometimes a more formal 
discourse ; sometimes a detailed exposition and collating of 
passages of Scripture referring to the land in wliich we 
were, or illustrated by passing scenes ; and then the most 
fervent remembrance of the dear absent ones of whose state 
we could know nothing, of our dear native land, and espe- 
cially of the churches of Christ in that land, then assembled 
for the worship of God. At such times, too, hymns long 
9* 



102 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

familiar would come with a fresh power aud unction ; such 
as that New Year's hymn, commencing, — 

" Great God, we sing that mighty hand," 

and especially the second stanza : — 

" By day, by night, at home, abroad, 
Still we are guarded by our God; . 
By his incessant bounty fed, 
By his unerring counsel led." 

So, too, that hymn of Madame Guion, which, to he appre- 
ciated, needs an experience somewhat like that which 
dictated it : — 

" This world, God, like that above. 
Is bright to those who know thy love ; 
Where'er they dwell, they dwell with thee; 
In heaven, in earth, or in the sea. 

" To me remains nor place, nor time, 
My countiy is in every clime ; 
I can be calm and free from care 
On any shore, since God is there. 

" While place we seek, or place we shun, 
The soul finds huppiness in none ; 
But with my God to guide my way, 
'T is equal joy to go, or stay. 

" Could I be cast where thou art not, ■ 
That were indeed a dreadful lot; 
But regions none remote I caU, 
^ Secure of finding God in all." 

Sometimes, indeed, God seemed nearer to us in Egypt 
than ever before, so full is this land of associations with the 
Bible. We seemed to Uve over the life of Abraham, of 
Joseph, and of Moses, and to see continually the hand of 



SABBATHS ON THE NILE. 103 

God in nature, in society, and in history. Occasionally we 
found opportunity for religious conversatioli, through our 
interpreter, with the people of a village, or for quiet medi- 
tation under the palms. But the Sabbath was commonly 
more quiet in the boat, away from villages with their bark- 
ing dogs, and wretched children crying '''■Backshish^ 

One Sabbath afternoon, as our boat was lying in front of 
the little village of Hiimran, some ten miles north of Girgeh, 
on the. west bank of the Nile, we walked up toward a small 
cluster of mud-brick habitations under a grove of palm- 
trees, about a quarter of a mile from the river, with a view 
to some general estimate of the condition and the disposi- 
tions of the people. 

Just as we entered the palm grove whose shade had al- 
lured us from the river, a group of men gathered around 
us with much apparent interest and friendliness. One of 
them in particular attracted our attention by his dignified 
and courteous bearing ; and from the style and quality of 
hlfe dress, the amber mouth-piece of his pipe, and the defer- 
ence shown to him by the rest, we inferred that he was 
what he afterwards proved to be, the sheik or chief man of 
the village. He was over fifty years of age, and his fine 
black beard had begun to silver, but his eye still shone with 
a mild brightness, which, lighting up the thoughtful expres- 
sion of a high and expansive forehead, gave to his counte- 
nance an air of unusual intelligence. I would have selected 
him anywhere for a reflecting, devout, benevolent, and 
upright man. His well-coiled turban, flowmg robe, graceful 
shawl, and shining, pointed slippers, set off his erect and 
well-proportioned figure and his truly handsome face, far 
better than could have been done with a Broadway dress 
coat, pants, and boots, with Genin's latest Paris hat, and 
Mrs. Beman's collars. I hope he did not take my worn-out 
suit, enveloped in a dressing-gown of divers colors, and my 



104 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

outre grass-cloth cap, tliough of Genin's make, with the 
accompaniment of a somewhat oriental beard, as a finished 
specimen of the American style. The dressing-gown, how- 
ever, which the sailors of our boat had already pronounced 
teieh, teieh, " good, very good," was the wonderment of all 
the children of the village, who slyly pulled it from behind, 
while the spectacles and blue goggles of my companion, 
were an equal wonderment to older heads. I thought the 
pipe, which is an abomination in the mouth of an American 
or a European, quite a becoming appendage to a turban, a 
toga, and a flowing beard ; — if it belongs anywhere, it 
would seem to be in that connection. The sheik saluted us 
with great cordiality, and seemed quite desirous to enter 
into conversation ; but as we had come ashore without either • 
the interpreter or an Arabic vocabulary, a sad messdhoom 
(good evening) pretty much exhausted our conversational 
resources. 

I made out, however, to inquire the name of his village, 
and pointing to the well-tilled field, told him it was teM) 
(good). I then told him the name of my town and country, 
of which. he seemed to have no definite idea, and added that 
we were Christians — a name that had sometimes operated 
like a charm when Copts were present. He understood me 
to ask if he was a Christian, and replied that he was a Mus- 
sulman, but there was not the least change in his manner in 
consequence of this mutual defining of our religious positions. 
I now began to experiment with the language of signs. 
Our steersman, who was with us, understood the English 
word water ; so pointing toward the west, I said, " America 
— water;" then made the motion of steamboat paddles, 
which they recognized at once from having seen the steam- 
boats of the Pasha on the river, — then brought together 
the palms of my hands, according to their mode of counting 
ten, which, twice repeated, and one hand added, made twenty- 



SABBATHS ON THE NILE. 105 

five " iydm " (days). They understood perfectly that Amer- 
ica was twenty-five days' sail by steamboat. But recollecting 
the slow rate of their river steamers, I made the time forty- 
five days, to give them a better idea of the distance. We 
then entered upon a general introduction. Pointing to the 
steersman, I said, ^^ Hassan" then pointing to myself, "Jbo- 
sef" at which the spectators seemed quite pleased, for in 
Egypt the name Joseph is honorable to this day. They 
pointed to the Professor, who answered ^^Toma," and then 
the sheik gave us his own name, which I will not attempt 
to convert into English. 

As the interview promised to be one of much interest, we 
despatched a messenger to the boat for the dragoman. 
This was accompHshed by pointing to the boat and saying, 
^^Bedair" (his name), then making the sign of conversation 
with the sheik, and adding, '^'Arahee-IngUes — IngUes-Ara- 
hee" (Arabic-English — English- Arabic). One of the sail- 
ors who had strolled up took the hint, and did the errand. 
While he was gone, the sheik resumed his seat at the foot 
of a tree, which he had left for the purpose of saluting us, 
and the other villagers formed a circle around him, as he 
leisurely whiffed away through his amber mouth-piece. But 
every eye was fixed upon the two Hawagees. 

A new idea now struck me. With the point of my stick, 
I began to draw upon the ground certain cabalistic lines, at 
which they gazed as if the veritable Yoosef, the interpre- 
ter of dreams, had reappeared, invested with magic powers. 
At length, after warding off the children from the marks, I 
traced a rude outline map of Africa, Europe, and America ; 
then pointing to the Nile, I showed them Mizr (Egypt), from 
the Mizraim of Scripture, and Arabia beyond, and then 
Cairo, also called Mizr, El Ishanderieh (Alexandria), Stam- 
houl (Constantinople), Europa, and following the Mediterra- 
nean and repeating the word water, I came to Inglees (Eng- 



106 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

land), and then slowly tracing the Atlantic, saying " water 
— Water," and, imitating a steamboat, I carried them to New 
York. This first easy lesson in geography filled them with 
astonishment and delight. ''■Teieh, teieh, teieh, Tceteer'" (Good, 
good, very good), went the rounds of the circle. 

By this time the dragoman had arrived, and with him a 
soldier of the Fasha's army, who chanced to be quartered 
in the village, and half a dozen of our boat's crew, who 
seemed to think we needed their protection. The map was 
now more fully explained ; but when they w^ere told that 
America was six thousand miles distant, they shook their 
heads with an air of incredulity, and it was only by giving 
distances in detail, to Constantinople, of which they had 
some idea,, to France, to England, and then to America, that 
they could be made to believe it. I told the sheik that 
vessels sailed from Stamboul to New York, and that I had 
seen in New York the flag of his country, which seemed to 
please him much ; also that in our country we had read in 
books about Egypt, and had now come to see it ; that 
we were going to Thebes and then to Stamboul ; that we 
thought well of the Sultan (as every American Christian 
should, for his firman of toleration to the Armenian Protes- 
tants, and for his noble treatment of Kossuth) ; that we 
were much pleased with Egypt, but we did not wish to get 
possession of it (as probably France, and England, and 
Eussia do), for we had a fine large country of our own. I 
then traced the seaboard of the United States along the 
Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, and told him the number 
of miles ; but I did not venture to bring in California and 
the Pacific coast, lest he should again become incredulous. 
I then drew the Mississippi Piver, and told him it was like 
the Nile, and that we had cotton, and sugar-cane, and wheat 
in great plenty. He showed the practical turn of his mind, 
by asking at once the cost of machines for watering the 
country. 



SABBATHS ON THE NILE. 107 

He was surprised to hear that there are no shadoofs or 
sakias on the Mississippi, but that sufficient rain falls to 
irrigate the land ; and he seemed to regard this as a great 
advantage. And so it is ; for in Egypt the land-owner 
must erect his own water-wheels, and as the land is held 
or rented in very small lots, the expense of watering it by 
the toilsome process of the shadoof is a main item in the 
cultivation. Frequently three or four neighbors combine 
and work the shadoofs in company for their common bene- 
fit. But on the other hand, a land of rains requires better 
building materials than are found in Egypt, and especially 
shingles, for which this country furnishes no wood, unless 
the bark and leaves of the palm could be made a substitute. 
The statement that land could be bought for one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre, and held in perpetuity by the 
purchaser, sounded strangely in a land where the greater 
part of the soil is held in fee by the Pasha, and can be 
bought only at from twenty to thirty dollars the acre, sub- 
ject to a government tax of three dollars. 

I next explained the manner of electing our President, 
and all our principal men. I knew that this was delicate 
ground to tread upon with the sheik of a village, in the 
hearing of his dependents, and of a soldier of Abhas Pasha ; 
but I watched the expression of his countenance till a 
gleam of satisfaction j)assed over it, and then said inquir- 
ingly, teieb ? " Teieh" " teieh" responded the sheik, soldier, 
and all. The sheik now asked how much we paid our 
President, and on hearing the sum, he eagerly inquired 
whether the President could not come and seize more 
money or the produce of the land. This question assured 
me of the sheik's dissatisfaction with the burdens and 
oppressions under which Egypt groans. Here every thing 
is at the absolute and capricious will of one man, and just 
now one of the worst of men. Besides the tax upon the 



108 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

land, a yearly tax is levied upon the palm-tree, with which 
the poor peasant ornaments his dwelling, and from which 
he gathers a few handfuls of dates. Sometimes, too, part 
of the produce of the soil is seized under various pretexts. 
Nor is this the worst of the Egyptian peasant's lot. He is 
liable to be seized and dragged away by violence to labor 
on the public works, in a distant part of the country, or to 
serve in the army of the Pasha. The strong domestic feel- 
ings of the Egyptian render him more averse to such an 
impressment, than are persons of the correspondmg class 
in France or Italy. 

When it was explained to the sheik that in the United 
States the people vote the taxes, and the people fight when 
war is necessary, and that the President cannot seize any 
man's property or person, for any purpose whatever, both 
he and the soldier expressed their great admiration of such 
a government, and to my surprise the sheik inquired with 
some earnestness, whether we ivoiild permit a Mussulman to 
live in our country ? I had noticed quite a disposition in 
one or two of our crew to attach themselves to our service 
for life, and to go back with us to America ; but I was 
astonished at a proposal to emigrate from a staid Mussul- 
man, the head man of a village. This, however, was just 
the opportunity I had been seeking for giving to the con- 
versation a religious turn. Having first explained to him 
that the country was not all like the Mississippi valley, or 
the valley of the Nile, but that at this season, in some parts, 
it was deeply covered with snow, and that anywhere he 
must expect to_ labor hard for his living ; I told him that 
there were no Mussulmen in America and no mosques, but 
that in America we never cut off a man's head, or put him 
in prison, or molest him in any way, on account of his reh- 
gion, and that no one would trouble him there because he 
was a Mussulman. 



MISSIONARY INCIDENT. 109 

During the conversation a Copt had drawn near, whom 
we recognized at once by his black turban, but toward whom 
we did not think it expedient to show any special attention, 
lest we might be taken for Christians of the same school. 
But his presence suggested the importance of making an 
explicit statement of our Christianity. Accordingly the 
sheik was told that we were Christians, but did not worship 
images, pictures, or saints ; that we loved Allah, (God,) and 
worshipped Him alone; that the Bible gave us the story 
of Abraham and of Joseph — names with which Mussulmen 
are familiar ; that we loved Christ the Son of God, because 
he had come into the world to teach us, and to save us from 
our sins; that there were some who called themselves 
Christians, who prayed to saints and the Virgin Mary, just 
as if the Sultan had a great many ministers, and one should 
go and pray to them all round as well as to him ; but we 
v/ent directly to the Sultan and to his Son for all that we 
desired ; — w^e prayed only to God and to Christ. During 
this explanation, the most intense interest was depicted upon 
every countenance, but all seemed to wait the reply of the 
sheik. He at once pronounced it a most excellent and 
beautiful rehgion, and the mode of worship true and right. 
Nothing was said on either side about Mohammed or the 
Koran. 

Next I told him that in America, in every village like 
his own, there is a school, where all the children of the 
village are taught to read and write without expense to 
their parents. Pointing to children of different ages who 
stood around, he inquired if they would all go to school 
in America ; and when answered affirmatively, he again 
exclaimed, " Teieb, teieh, keteer" (Good, very good). Here 
the Copt brought forward his son, a lad about eight years 
old, and told us that he went to school, — for the Copts have 
almost a monopoly of reading and writing in Egypt. Then 
10 



110 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

taking off the boy's cap, lie showed me a soriy head, cov- 
ered with scabs, for which he wanted me to prescribe. But 
not being versed in cutaneous diseases, and having no 
materials for a wash but laudanum, camphor, and hartshorn, 
I did not venture to meddle with it. A little sugar of lead 
might have been serviceable. 

The sun had now set, and it was time for our little 
congregation to disperse ; but I was unwilling to go away 
without some definite expression of their feelings toward a 
missiojiary, in case one should be sent among them. I 
therefore said, " Suppose that I should come here and live 
in your villages, — not to quarrel with you about your 
religion ; not to get your money or your land, but to talk 
with you about God ; to teach your children, and to do you 
all the good in my power ; what would you do with me ? 
would you let me stay, or would you send me away ? '* 
"With one voice they all answered, "We would take you 
on our heads ; we would take you into our houses ; we 
would give you land ; we would give you bread ; we would 
give you dates ; we would give you sheep ; we would give 
you water ; we would send you our children ; we would 
bring to you our people." I told them that we hoped they 
would love God and serve Him, and meet us in heaven. 
The sheik answered, that there were many men in the 
village who loved God, and prayed and fasted and gave 
alms, and did what was right, so as to go to Paradise. We 
then bade him adieu. He said he was very sorry that we 
were going away so soon. One old man followed us to the 
boat. Not even a child in the whole village asked us for 
hacksMsh. All seemed to regard us with favor. And when 
we consider that with one exception the whole group was 
composed of Mussulmen, that among them were the Shehh- 
helled, (head man of the town,) a soldier of the Pasha's 
army, old men and children, and sailors from different parts 



MISSIONARY INCIDENT. 1J.1 

of the country, who could report every thing that was said, 
this open avowal of a willingness to have a Christian come 
and teach them and their children, must be taken as a proof, 
that so far as the people are concerned, in some of the 
smaller towns of Egypt, remote from the capital, the way is 
already open for a missionary. I do not suppose that this is 
true of the larger towns, where there are mosques, and 
where the Ulemas (the priests or doctors of Islam) reside, 
or in towns under the immediate influence of the capital, 
and I have no doubt that the renunciation of Mohammedan- 
ism^by any considerable number of persons, would attract 
the notice of the g-overnment — would provoke persecution 
— and would even lead to the infliction of the death penalty 
according to the law. Still the way is open for a Mission in 
Egypt, and a judicious person or persons, having a knowl- 
edge of the language, with a genial disposition, and a large 
sympathy with humanity, and withal possessing some medi- 
cal skill, might gain access to the feelings of the people 
generally, and prepare the way for future laborers, even 
among the Mussulmen. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 



MARRIAGE AND MOURNING. 



One evening, just as we liad retired to our berths, the 
cry was heard, " Behold, the bridegroom cometh : go ye 
forth to meet him ; " a cry uttered not in words, but in the 
noise of tambourines, and reed fifes, and such sounds as 
the unmusical Arabs utter for song. It was the sound of a 
marriage procession in the village at which we were an- 
chored. For several days there had been feasting at the 
house of the father of the bride, and now the bridegroom 
with his friends had come to take her to his own home. 
She was mounted behind him on the same horse, and the 
procession, lighted with torches, and enlivened v/ith rude 
music, moved noisily through all the streets of the village, 
honored the boats of the Hawagee with a visit, and finally 
halted at the door of the bridegroom. After sundry Jewish 
customs that are common also to the Ishmaelitish branch of 
Abraham's posterity, the crowd dispersed to their homes. 
Next morning, presents would be sent by all the village ; 
but the bride would remain secluded for thirty days. 

A few days after this incident, as we were walking by a 
little village on the western bank, our attention was arrested 
by loud outcries, which seemed to proceed from both sides 
of the river, and on the opposite bank we saw some women 
making violent gesticulations, accompanied with piercing 
screams. At the same time a confused wailing arose from 
the village, and, directing our steps thither, we saw a num- 



MARRIAGE AND MOURNING. 113 

ber of women seated on the ground, swinging themselves to 
and fro, throwing dust upon their heads, and uttering a low 
murmuring cry, that seemed to be a repetition of the same 
words, in a plaintive, monotonous chant. Others were 
walking up and down, throwing their arms in the air, tear- 
ing their long cotton hoods, shaking their dresses violently, 
and shrieking as if distracted with grief. All the women 
of the village were gathered around one of the little hovels, 
which seemed to be the centre of this strange commotion. 
Presently the women whom we had seen on the opposite 
bank arrived in a boat, and came in mournful procession to 
join in the wailing of the village. Some were chanting the 
same dolorous chant ; others, throwing aside their garments, 
would shriek at intervals ; and each one as she reached the 
group at the village, would utter a shrill, piercing scream, 
such as we had first heard from the other side of the river. 

On inquiring the occasion of this grief, we learned that a 
little child, playing near the river the day before, had fallen 
in and was drowned ; and though according to the present 
custom of the country he had already been committed to 
the dust, the neighbors, far and near, had gathered to mourn 
with his mother. The absence of male persons from this 
assembly of women, forcibly reminded us of the frequent al- 
lusions in the Scriptures to the mourning of women ; and the 
whole scene answered to the details of such scenes in the 
Old Testament.* The effect was peculiar. There were per- 
haps in all thirty women, all dressed in the uniform style of 
the poorer class of women in Egypt, with a long, loose gar- 
ment of dark blue cotton cloth, and a hood of the same 
material covering the head and descending to the waist. 
These melancholy looking figures passing to and fro, shriek- 
ing, howling, wailing, throwing open their hoods and dis- 
figuring themselves with dirt, jerking their garments as if 

* See Jer. ix. 17, xxxi. 15. 
10* 



114 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

they would tear them to pieces, seemed the very impersona- 
tion of despair. I know not how long this scene continued 
— perhaps till nature was exhausted — but for more than a 
mile beyond the village, we continued to hear that wild 
piercing cry that had first startled us. 

I was in no mood to criticize such a mode of manifesting 
sorrow. There, upon the borders of the Lybian Desert, and 
with the bare and solemn mountains upon either hand, the 
grief that rent the still air seemed but the gushing forth of 
nature. I could never brook the senseless, soulless custom 
of some American cities, which fashion and not feeling dic- 
tates, that woman should not follow to the sepulchre the 
precious dust of father, husband, child — should not see 
where that dust is laid, nor feel the solemn, tender influence 
of the open grave. My whole heart went with those mourn- 
ing women ; for is it not the same for the little child to die 
upon the Nile as upon the Hudson ? Yet 

" Only -with silence as their benediction 
God's angels come, 
When, in the shadow of a great affliction. 
The soul sits dumb." 






CHAPTEE XV. 

ORIENTALIZING A VILLAGE COFFEE-HOUSE. 

As I sat writing this morning in my cabin while the boat 
was driving before a stiff north wind — most welcome after 
days of calm — I felt a sudden shock that indicated that 
she had brought up against the bank, and hurrying out, 
had barely time to spring ashore for a walk with the reis 
and the dragoman, who were going by a short cut to a 
distant town to buy provisions, and there to await the arri- 
val of the boat by the winding of the river. Shaheen, a 
tall and well-proportioned Arab who had taken a fancy to 
accompany us in our walks, went also as a sort of escort, 
armed with his club against barking dogs and imaginary 
robbers. The suddenness of my exit had left no time for 
inquiry, and it was not till I had mounted the steep bank, 
and had strained my eyes to see the farthest palm-trees, 
that I realized what a walk I had undertaken. Our way 
lay across one of those vast deposits of alluvium under the 
lee of the mountains, for which the Upper Nile is so 
remarkable. The bald projection of Gehel Shehh Hereedee 
— a long table mountain of a yellowish stone, some five 
hundred feet high, tha,t juts out from the Arabian chain — 
lay immediately behind us on the north-east, and a broad 
plain of mixed clay and sand, that the washings of the river 
had deposited, stretched for miles around its base ; while 
the river bent its course westward toward the Lybian chain, 



116 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

where it is now undermining villages that have stood for 
years upon a similar formation. 

For two hours we walked over this plain under a burn- 
ing sun, the thermometer being nearly 80 '^ in the cool 
exposure of the boat. In some parts the soil equalled the 
richest bottoms of Illinois, and was covered with wheat 
already ripening, as heavy as any prairie of the West can 
yield. In others the third annual crop of clover was dif- 
fusing its fragrance, and inviting the numerous herds of cat- 
tle to regale upon its sweetness. Long rows of onions — the 
slender and delicate white onions of this country — were 
interspersed over the arable ground, their green to^ 
waving like tall grass ; and adjacent to these in the sandy 
soil, as sandy as New Jersey, were melon vines in great 
abundance — every inch of ground that could be redeemed 
from the desert or the river, being in some way improved. 
All this looked homelike. 

But no Illinois bottoms or Jersey sands can present such 
scenery as meets the eye upon that burning plain along the 
bank of the Nile. Prairie-like, it was entirely destitute of 
fences and of stones. For fences there is no substitute in 
Egypt, of hedge, or wall, or ditch, or bank of earth, for 
there is no visible partition of the land ; and yet the land is 
sometimes pgtrcelled out in patches of one, two, or three 
acres, or even less, to suit the limited resources of the peo- 
ple. A stone stuck in the ground at intervals, defines a 
boundary as surely and as sacredly as a wall of iron. The 
" ancient landmark " stands untouched from generation to 
generation. Each cultivator knows his own limits, and 
each grazier keeps his cattle within the appointed bounds. 
Hence, as in Switzerland, the necessity of continually 
tending the flocks and herds. 

Over this immense plain were scattered villages, which, 
on account of their exposure to desert tribes, were sur- 



ORIENTALIZING. 117 

rounded with walls, or a stockade of tall heavy cornstalks, 
thickly set and covered Avith a coat of mud, answering no 
doubt to the walled towns of ancient times. 

Here, for the first time in Egypt, I saw wells sunk in the 
earth at the distance of two miles from the river. These 
were furnished with rude buckets of skin, and with troughs 
for the cattlp. Rebekah came out from the town with her 
water jar upon her head, and having filled her vessel, gave 
drink to the camels also. As in the sultry noon I sat 
wearily by the well-side, the woman of Samaria gave me to 
drink. The Oriental pictures of the Bible became living 
scenes. Walking on apart from villages-, I found such 
" booths " as Jacob built for liis cattle, scattered over the 
plain ; booths of cane-brake and palm leaves, to give shelter 
to the flocks, and to those that tended them — every thing 
unchanged in the habits of the East. Yet not so with man's 
dominion ; for stumbling over a broken column used as a 
step, before one of the gates of Ekhmim, I was reminded 
that the old Egyptian, the Greek, and the Roman, had all 
passed away ; and regarding the rude plastered oval tombs 
of sundry Moslem sheiks and saints, I bethought me of 
Nestorius, who here closed in death his sixteen years of 
exile under the decree of the Council of Ephesus. But I 
could get no trace of his grave. 

I entered Ekhmim, that boasts the site of one of the 
most ancient cities of Egypt, founded by an immediate son 
of Ham, and still a town of considerable importance. It 
was Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, which, like Sunday 
in Continental Europe, is observed only during canonical 
hours. While the mosque was crowded with men, appar- 
ently devout in prayer and chanting, the bazaar was half 
open, and the women sat as usual with eggs and lentils and 
bread for sale. 

Taking a seat on a divan, in front of a colFee-house, under 



118 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

the shade of pahn-leaf mats, I sipj^ed with my companions a 
jingan of the universal beverage, and while they whiffed 
their pipes, and the water carrier laid the dust about our 
feet, I leisurely enjoyed the East. In the wake of the 
water sprinkler came the Erhsoosee, the water crier, who 
either sells you a portion poured from his cool earthen jar 
— stopped with a tuft of grass or of palm leaves — into a 
brazen dish, or if he be a saint, bestows it upon you for 
charity and ihc love of God. 

The dispenser of water who approached our seat was one 
emi^loyed by some charitable Mussulman to distribute this 
favor to passengers, and as he jingled his cups together, and 
uttered his shrill cry of invitation, Seheel Allah YdaUhdn, 
I felt that as of old, poetry, hospitality, and love, retained 
their home in the Eastern world. 

Quiet, easy, deliciously cool, soft, and dreamy, was that 
hour of bazaar life, after the heat of the plain. Shaheen 
had determined to encase his feet in slippers. Full half an 
hour was consumed in a bargain, and in the paj^ment of 
thirty cents. Then the seller tendered the buyer his pipe, 
and another half hour was slowly puffed away. Presently 
others of the crew appeared, announcing the arrival of the 
boat. But what a transformation ! Turbans, tarbouches, 
kaftans, slippers, — I felt proud of such- a retinue of peers 
in court dress, until I accidentally discovered that this dis- 
play was for quite other eyes upon the Upper Nile. 

At Ekhmim one sees in striking contrast the ancient and 
the modern. By some considered the oldest city of all 
Egypt, — dating from the first generation after the flood, — 
it was long one of the principal cities of the Thebaid for 
trade and for worship. "According to Strabo, its inhabi- 
tants were famous as linen manufacturers and workers in 
stone." Here was a splendid temple of Pan. Here mon- 
archs of successive dynasties have recorded their names, 



A VILLAGE COFFEE-HOUSE. 119 

from Thotlimes to Trajan. Here was a powerful seat of 
Christianity, and a refuge of the witnesses for the faith. 
Now hardly a vestige remains of its ancient grandeur. The 
town has shrunk to the dimensions of a moderate village, 
that one could compass in a quarter of an hour. Its walls 
are of common mud brick ; its houses are low and untidy ; 
its streets are narrow and crooked alleys ; and its bazaar 
displays only an indifferent assortment of the commonest 
goods. The mosque and the large khan opposite, are the 
only structures that make any pretence to solidity or beauty ; 
and whatever these have is due to the working in of frag- 
ments of buildmgs that have long since perished. Here 
and there you see jutting from the' mud wall of a hovel the 
fragment of a pillar or a block of red granite, with some 
Greek, Roman, or hieroglyphic inscription ; or a vender of 
antiques offers you indiscriminately the coins of ancient 
Rome and of modern British India. 

The common people look wretchedly. Shabby women 
and sore-eyed children, blind men and beggars, meet you 
at every turn. Outside the wails a long embankment pro- 
tects the town, and the adjacent fields, from the yearly 
overflow of the river, while artificial canals conduct the 
waters where they are needed for irrigation. Here a 
large field of poppies of various colors, in full bloom, gave 
a rich and diversified aspect to the scene, — and the palms, 
as ever, waved aloft in aerial beauty. Thus, continually, m 
Egypt, do you pass from the grandeur of the past to the 
degradation of the present, and again from the dreary facts 
of human life to the dreamy poetry of nature. 

As I have frequently alluded to the coffee-house as a 
characteristic feature in every village on the Nile, the 
following sketch of one and its incidents, may complete the 
picture in the eye of the reader. 

This being the birthday of one of our party, it was pro- 



120 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

posed that we should commemorate it by a cup of coffee at 
the first village. This chanced to be the village of Goldsa- 
neh on the Upper Nile, which to the usual stack of mud- 
brick hovels intersected with narrow lanes, adds the accom- 
paniments of lofty pigeon towers, a grove of acacia and sont 
trees, and a picturesque sheik's tomb without the village 
precincts. On the bank of the river was a hut some ten 
feet square, within which upon either side was a raised seat 
or bench of hard-baked mud, covered with rude mats. In 
one corner was an oven of the same material, with a little 
fire of coals. Around were disposed a number of tiny 
china cups, such as little girls use in their play, together 
with brass stands, or holders, turned in the shape of an egg. 
The cup is called Jingan and the holder zarf. Over the 
fire simmered a vessel of hot water, and beside it stood a 
little pint mug with an iron handle. This completed 
the equipment of the establishment. When coffee was 
ordered, the proprietor put into the mug aforesaid two or 
three large spoonfuls of the fragrant Mocha, poured hot 
water over it, boiled it a few moments on the fire, and then 
poured it into the cups without milk or sugar, but piping 
hot. 

One of our party requested sugar, and a lump of a rather 
doubtful complexion was dropped into his Jingan to dissolve 
at leisure. It made quite a palatable beverage. This is 
the usual style of the coffee-shops in the villages.- In larger 
towns they may have better mats and a few low cane stools 
for sitting a la Turk ; but always the divan, and the little 
fire, and the hot water, and the tiny cups, and the coffee 
fresh boiled for each customer. Here the villagers meet to 
drink coffee and smoke pipes, which is a decided advance 
upon drinking brandy and chewing tobacco. There are no 
dram-shops, and the coffee-shop is a legitimate business, for 
often in the bazaar the shop-tender will send for his coffee 



A VILLAGE COFFEE-HOUSE. 121 

from the coffee-shop and his thin loaf from the baker, and 
sit, and drink, and eat, and smoke, while waiting for a sale. 
The cost of such a cup of coffee, even with sugar, is 
hardly appreciable in American currency. A five para 
coin for a cup, sugar and all ; and eight five para pieces 
make a piastre, which is about five cents. Among the 
crowd of curious villagers standing at the door of the coffee- 
house, two females attracted our notice. One dark as 
Nubia, had a fine countenance and bright speaking eyes ; 
the other, copper-colored, had a haughty air, and evidently 
sought admiration for the gold lace upon her head and the 
ring in her nose. They were richly attired, and wore 
frontlets of gold and anklets of silver. Our interpreter 
assured us that they were decent women of the neighbor- 
hood, and said he had ordered them coffee at our expense ; 
but after we had learned better to distinguish character 
by dress we concluded not to boast of our company ! 



11 



CHAPTER XVI 



CROCODILES. 



There are no crocodiles to be seen north of MInleli, in 
latitude 28°. As I have before remarked, the Arabs believe 
that at that point a prophet or saint arrests their progress up 
the river, by turning them over on their backs, through 
some incantation, or possibly by spiritual magnetism. ■ Mr. 
"Wilkinson sjieaks of having seen them on the bank opposite 
Minieh. We had ordered a sharp look-out to be kept for 
them as we ascended the river, but had almost begun to 
despair of seeing them, when, as we were lying near 
Bellianeh, in latitude 26^^, we descried seven of these huge 
creatures basking in the sun, upon the little sand bars that 
jut out from the opposite shore. They were from twelve 
to twenty feet in length, with enormous jaws, and huge 
serrated tails. They all seemed to be asleep, and in one 
spot two were lying quite cozily together. The next day 
we again saw five in a similar position, basking on the sand 
in the sweltering noon, entirely out of water. We could 
not get very near them on account of the shoals ; but one 
of the sailors fired a gun, the report of which startled them, 
and in an instant they precipitated themselves into the river 
with a most ungainly waddle. We never saw any after this, 
and, indeed, our reis informed us in his broken English, that 
crocodilo was finish, a welcome announcement, since it 
enabled us to enjoy, without fear, our bath in the oily- 
smooth waters of the Nile. The crocodiles are probably 



CROCODILES. 123 

attracted to this section of the river by the abundance of 
sand and the warmth of the water. A miniature specimen, 
about eighteen inches long, was presented to us, which 
flourished awhile in the wash-tub, but being of a surly- 
disposition, refused to eat, and died. He would snap at a 
stick, however, and would hold it with a grip of his infant 
jaws, that foreshadowed what these would do with the legs 
or body of a man. 

The crocodile species seems to be dying out. Below 
Thebes it is limited pretty much to a section of the river 
abounding in shallow sand bars. It is found, also, higher 
up the Nile. At Thebes I saw its body among other mum- 
mies, as carefully preserved as were the bodies of kings. 
This horrid creature was once worshipped as a divinity — 
but not uniformly, for what some worshipped others de- 
stroyed, and hence sanguinary wars arose over the carcases 
of these huge monsters with scaly folds. 

Sir Gardner Wilkinson gives the following succinct ac- 
count of the usages of the Egyptians toward this animal. 

" Neither the hippopotamus nor the crocodile were used as 
food by the ancient Egyptians ; but. the people of Apollino- 
polis ate the crocodile, upon a certain occasion, in order to 
show their abhorrence of Typho, the evil genius of whom it 
was an emblem. They had also a solemn hunt of this 
animal upon a particular day, set apart for the purpose, at 
which time they killed as many of them as they could, and 
afterwards threw their dead bodies before the temple of 
their God, assigning this reason for their practice, that it 
was in the shape of a crocodile Typho eluded the pursuit 
of Orus. 

"In some parts of Egypt it was sacred, while in other 
places, they made war upon it ; and those who lived about 
Thebes and the lake Moeris, (in the Arsonoite nome,) held 
it in great veneration. 



124 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

" It was there treated with the most marked respect, and 
kept at considerable expense ; it was fed and tended with 
the most scrupulous care ; geese, fish, and various meats 
were dressed purposely for it; they ornamented its head 
with ear-rings, its feet with bracelets, and its neck with 
necklaces of gold and artificial stones ; it was rendered 
perfectly tame by kind treatment ; and after death its body 
was embalmed in the most sumptuous manner. This was 
particularly the case in the Theban, Ombite, and Arsonoite 
nomes ; and at a place nov/ called Maabdeh, opposite the 
modern town of Manfaloot, are extensive grottos cut far 
into the limestone mountain, where numerous crocodile 
mummies have been found, perfectly preserved, and evi- 
dently embalmed with great care. 

"The people of Apollinopolis, Tentyris, Heracleopolis, 
and other places, on the contrary, held the crocodile in 
abhorrence, and lost no opportunity of destroying it, and 
the Tentyrites were so expert from long habit, in catching 
and even in overcoming this powerful animal in the water, 
that they were known to follow it into the Nile, and bring 
it by force to the shore. Pliny, and others, mention the 
wonderful feats performed by them, not only in their own 
country, but in the presence of the Roman people ; and 
Strabo says, that on the occasion of some crocodiles being 
exhibited at Rome, the Tentyrites who were present, fully 
confirmed the truth of the report of their power over 
those animals, for having put them into a spacious tank 
of water, with a shelving tank artificially constructed at 
one side, the men boldly entered the water, and entangling 
them in a net, dragged them to the bank, and back again 
into the water, which was witnessed hj numerous spec- 
tators." 

All reverence for the crocodile as a sacred animal has 
now died out in Egypt. It is true of this, as of all the old 
divinities, " Finish Grocodilo" 



CHAPTER XVII. 

DENDEEAH KENEH A HUMAN HEART. 

We had been thirty days and more upon the Nile without 
seeing any antiquities ; excepting one pillar and one obelisk 
at Alexandria, the pyramids at a distance, and a few frag- 
ments at Minieh, Ekhmim, and other places where mighty 
cities once stood. It was time to see a temple ; and while 
the crew sojourned at Keneh to bake their bread, we crossed 
the river to its western bank, and took donkeys for the ruins 
of Tentyris, about two miles inland, on the slope of the 
Lybian mountains. Riding over an immense uncultivated 
plain, we reached a huge mound composed in part of the 
ruins of the ancient city, and in part of the debris of an 
Arab village, that in later times had squatted over these. 
Ascending this mound for a short distance we found an 
isolated gateway {pylon) of yellow stone, richly sculptured, 
and bearing upon its inner face the image of Isis nursing 
her infant Horus. This is as distinct as if sculptured yes- 
terday. The pylon, however, is of Roman origin, and bears 
the names of the emperors Domitian and Trajan. 

Those who have seen the Arc de TrioTrnphe at Paris, can 
form some idea of the pylon of an Egyptian temple. From 
this pylon an avenue (dromos), two hundred feet long, leads 
to a magnificent portico in almost perfect preservation, sup- 
ported by twenty-four columns, of about thirty feet diame- 
ter, disposed in four parallel rows. This, too, is Roman, 
11* 



126 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

having been built under Tiberius, but in the Egyptian style ; 
its date is determined from a Greek inscription found at 
one angle. Beyond this portico is a hall leading to a large 
chamber, with two smaller rooms adjacent, and beyond this 
is another inner chamber — the adyiuin, surrounded also 
with smaller rooms. The whole naos, or temple proper, 
was built under the Ptolemies, perhaps two hundred years 
before Clu-ist. These dates, now well ascertained, are of 
great importance, because of the pretensions of infidels 
from the zodiac here found. Around the hall here spoken 
of, are lateral chambers covered with sculpture. The whole 
building measures about two hundred and twenty feet by one 
hundred and fifty. It commands a fine view of the valley of 
the Nile, and was used as a landmark by the sailors before 
the river had so far receded. The roof is almost entire, 
and consists of massive blocks of stone — some four feet in 
thickness by twenty or thirty in length — resting upon the 
pillars of the portico. All around the interior of the temple 
is a double wall, with secret passages, about three feet wide, 
entirely dark, yet profusely sculptured on both sides with 
divinities, offerings, and emblems. These were connected, 
doubtless, with the mysteries of worship ; they are now ten- 
anted by myriads of bats, that dart hither and thither, beat- 
ing the air with their wings, and the walls with their heads, 
as they are scared up by the torches. Perhaps Ezekiel's 
figure of the dark " chambers of imagery " was suggested 
by such secret halls. 

On the back wall of the temple is a sculptured portrait 
of Cleopatra, which does not answer to the fame of her 
beauty ; also one of her son, the offspring of her union with 
Julius Caesar. The mark of the Roman conqueror is 
everywhere seen; — yet we had already looked upon the 
mouldering sepulchre of Rome. 

The famous zodiac is still bright upon the ceihng of this 
Roman portico — Roman, without doubt, and therefore only 



DENDERAH. 127 

eighteen hundred years old, instead of being older than the 
flood, as infidels alleged. With many boasts and taunts, the 
French sayans of Napoleon's expedition to Egypt pointed 
to this zodiac as the final refutation of scriptural chronology. 
Their estimates of the age of these monuments ranged from 
three thousand to seventeen thousand years before Christ. 
But ChampoUion deciphered upon the zodiac at Denderah 
the name of Augustus Caesar as its author, which, indeed, 
says Sharpe, might have been inferred from the fact that 
this emperor first introduced into the zodiac the sign of the 
Scales, which is found in the zodiac at Denderah. 

Lepsius, who has sufficient leanings toward an extreme 
antiquity in the monuments of Egypt, admits that the tem- 
ple of Denderah is "almost confined to the Roman period."* 

Having satisfied our curiosity with the exploration of the 
most modern temple in Egypt, — which, in the preservation 
of the roof, and of the order of the several parts, is also the 
most perfect, — we returned to Keneh, on the opposite side 
of the river, which, like nearly all the modern towns of 
Egypt, occupies the site of an ancient city (^Gcenopolis), now 
utterly perished. This is the residence of a provincial gov- 
ernor, whose large white mansion stands just without the 
walls, and is also a place of considerable trade with the 
Arabian coast. Keneh stands back some two miles from the 
present channel of the river, and the approach to it through 
immense open fields in a high state of cultivation, and by a 
pleasant avenue of sycamores and acacias, is a delightful 
contrast to the desolation of Denderah. Just without the 
walls, near the palace of the governor, a large number of 
the elderly men of the town were gathered, awaiting the 
decision of the lot for the enrolment of their sons in the 
army. They sat in groups on the ground, smoking their 
pipes, -while crowds of women, by their earnest gesticula- 
* Letters, p. 322. 



128 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tions and occasional outcries, betokened the more lively in- 
terest of mothers and sisters in the same event. 

In its general features, Keneh is but a repetition of other 
towns already described. It- is, however, notorious for its 
immorality, and in one quarter of the town we saw at mid- 
day, and in the open streets, the brazen impudence of vice 
as pictured by Solomon in the Book of Proverbs. Many of 
the dancing women, who were banished from Cairo by a 
freak of Mohammed Ali, make Keneh the head-quarters of 
their infamous trade during the season of travel and of 
commerce. It is impossible for the traveller on the Nile 
not to see occasional exhibitions of a grossly depraved taste 
in connection with the once religious dance of the AlmeJis, 
that justify the satires of Juvenal, and confirm our worst 
impressions of the licentious orgies of the old idolatry. The 
shrine of Venus at Denderah has been transferred to a very 
sty at Keneh. At this place we saw reason to change the 
good opinion we had formed of the morality of our crew. 

"We were detained at Keneh about thirty-six hours, not- 
withstanding the prevalence of a north wind that would 
have carried us to Thebes in half a day. The reason of 
this delay was, that the crew were out of bread ; and as no 
supply of bread is to be found ready-made even at the larger 
towns, they must needs buy the grain, and then bruise it into 
flour and bake it, or make a contract with some one to do 
this by wholesale. And when one considers the slowness of 
the Arabs in making a bargain, and in all sorts of manual 
labor, it is not surprising that to get a supply of coarse 
bread for a few days, should prove a great affair. The 
bread when baked is cut into small pieces, and spread on 
the deck to dry in the sun. This detention for bread-baking 
occurs two or three times on a voyage up the river. 

Keneh is famous for the manufacture of porous water 
jars. These are bound together in rafts, and are floated 



KENEH. 129 

down tlie river to Cairo and Alexandria, where they are in 
great request I have already alluded to the muddiness of 
the Nile. When first drawn from the river, the water is as 
thick as that of the Mississippi, and after standing awhile it 
leaves in the vessel a large deposit of earthy matter. The 
common people drink it, cook with it, wash with it, just as it 
is. Yet a kind Providence has laid in store in the clay of 
some parts of the Nile valley, just what is needed for puri- 
fying and cooling the turbid water of the river. This clay 
is porous, and when mixed with sifted ashes of half eh grass, 
the water filters through it, even after it has been baked 
into jars an inch thick. These jars are manufactured prin- 
cipally at Keneh, where the clay abounds, and are a chief 
item in the business of the place. Stand such a jar in the 
shade, cover it with some non-conductor, fill it with water 
from the river, all muddy and warm, put under it a stone 
basin to catch the filtered drops, and you will have as pure 
water as the mountain spring can furnish, and as cool as can 
be found anywhere this side of Rockland Lal?:e. It is a 
sweeter water than the Croton, and when thus purified may 
justify the eulogium of Mohammed, who likened it to the 
nectar of Paradise. The existence of such a clay in the 
valley of a river which is the sole dependence of the 
country, is another illustration of the great law of compen- 
sation that runs through all the works of the Creator. 

Our worthy reis, who hails from Keneh, has laid in a 
good stock of filtering jars for speculation on his own 
account at Alexandria. Apropos of the reis, we had sup- 
posed that he had planned the delay for bread-baking at 
this point, for the sake of a day with his wife, and especially 
as we had seen him purchasing a new shawl, and other 
articles for presents. But now, as we are starting, a cluster 
of native women surrounding him in earnest consultation, 
leads to an inquiry, which results in the information, that 



130 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

the reis — wlio is one of the most devout of the prophet's 
followers — has turned his wife out of doors because of her 
disrespect toward his mother, and this is his aunt with a 
hopeful daughter, whom she wishes him to marry! The 
reis, however, is not to be caught ; so he pulls away from 
them down the bank, heedless of the most eloquent gesticu- 
lations from the managing aunt, and of the hidden charms 
of his cousin, buried as she is in a blue cotton sack. 

Poor Hassan has been sadly deceived. Whoever en- 
gaged him at Alexandria told him, as an inducement, that 
the boat was going to Assouan — the first cataract — where 
he has a wife and three children, whom he has not seen for 
six months. Of course he has not heard from them, for 
neither he nor any of his family can write, and if they 
could, there is no mail ; but he sent word by a boat that 
went before us, that he was coming, and he has been buying 
new clothes for himself and them. He has just discovered 
that we are only going to Thebes. We knew nothing of his 
expectations, or of what was said to him at starting, but he 
thinks we are the cause of his disappointment, and just 
now, when I hailed him playfully, he replied, that he did 
not wish to speak to me because I would not let him go to 
see his wife. He is much cast down. We have all tried to 
comfort him — have offered to release him at Thebes, and 
to pay his expenses home ; but he says he does not wish to 
part from us, and he sits on the forward deck incontinently 
smoking his pipe as his only solace, and pointing us touch- 
in gly toward Assouan. Poor fellow ! He has a warm 
heart, and it is wounded to the core. 

I called him to me and showed him the pictures of the 
cataract and of Philae, in Bartlett's beautiful and accurate 
sketches of the Nile. He recognized them, and a beam of 
joy lighted up his features ; but he turned away and said 
he felt as if he must cry. I asked him if to look at the 



A HUMAN HEART. 131 

pictures every day would not do as well as to go home. 
He said the sight of them made him lose his heart, and he 
had better never look at them again. I never witnessed 
more genuine manly sorrow. The domestic attachments of 
the poorer classes in Egypt and Nubia, are very strong. Only 
the rich and the great have their harem. The body of the 
people maintain the marriage institution in singleness of 
aflfection and in purity. Yet Hassan's native Nubia is still 
a huntmg ground for slaves. I have seen his countrymen 
and countrywomen in the slave markets at Alexandria and 
Cairo ; and no doubt Hassan himself, with his refined sensi- 
bility — for he says he knows we wish to see our families, 
and since he understands it he does not blame us, but will 
serve us still — no doubt Hassan, with his refined sensibility 
and his great swelling human heart, would be rated as a 
prime chattel by some republicans. 

Apropos of pictures, let me advise every Nile traveller to 
take with him Bartlett's Nile Boat, published by the Har- 
pers. Its pictures are very truthful, and help greatly to fix 
the scenes which they identify. Our Arab crew, unaccus- 
tomed to see such plates, recognized each view with shouts 
of joy, and supposing me to be the artist, were eager to sit 
for their portraits ! I showed them Hassan at the tiller of 
the dahabeeh, in Bartlett's vignette ; at which they were as 
much pleased as little children. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



TREES AND BIRDS. 



Far southward on the Nile, in latitude 26*^, there grows 
a tree called by the Arabs Dom — the Tlieban palm. It 
is scattered along the banks, northward, for a distance of 
one hundred and fifty miles, but south of Keneh it pre- 
dominates over the tall date-palm of Lower Egypt. The 
common palm-tree grows to a great height — frequently 
from sixty to eighty feet, without putting forth a single 
branch from its solitary upright trunk. It is trained to this 
•growth by trimming off the leaves every year from the 
young stalk, so that its strength shoots upward ; and by this 
process, also, the bark is formed into a succession of steps 
or- notches, by which the barefooted Arab mounts easily to 
the top. From the very top of the tree, the long pointed 
leaves curl gracefully upon every side, like the close set 
frame of a parachute, and just where the broad wedge- 
shaped base of the leaf adheres to the tree, the fruit hangs 
in clusters, all around the trunk. "When its early training 
is neglected, the j)alm-tree grows less gracefully ; sometimes 
it divides at the root into several trunks, which grow with- 
out branches to various heights, and then spread out their 
leafy crests. The palm-tree looks most majestic and most 
picturesque when it stands alone upon some broad plain or 
gentle bluff, and when its leaves are stirred lightly by the 
wind. The eye then takes it in at one view, measures it by 
some mental standard, or disdaining all mathematical pro- 



TREES AND BIRDS. 133 

portions, dreamily contemplates the waving lines of beauty, 
and the straight, slender, yet stately stalk, that stands in 
bold relief against the stainless azure. This palm-tree is 
unknown in the United States, except in rare garden 
culture, but in Egypt it grows everywhere, and is to the 
people food, shade, shelter, fuel, raiment, timber, divan, 
cordage, basket, roof, screen. Its fruit reaches its perfection 
on the confines of Nubia. 

But the dom is confined to the Thebaid, that portion of 
the Nile Valley lying between 27 '^ and 24*^. It is the palm 
of our own Florida; a tree of moderate stature, and 
bifurcated at regular intervals, its outmost branches termi- 
nating in large fan-shaped leaves, so thickly set that they 
give it the appearance of a huge bushy mop, yet always 
gracefully disposed. Its fruit is pear-shaped, or has more 
nearly the shape, size, and appearance, of a yellowish- white 
potato of full growth. It is dry and fibrous, and the guide- 
book says, " exactly resembles our gingerbread in flavor," 
though I can perceive no flavor but that of dry chips. The 
tree is beautiful, especially when intermingled with the 
taller date-palm. 

Toward evening, walking on the bank, I came upon a 
grove of intermingled dom and date-palms, covering several 
acres, with intervals of ^mall plantations of. cotton, onions, 
and castor-beans, bordered with the prickly sont, or acanthus. 
The setting sun glanced horizontally through the openings 
of the trees, and paved the avenues with gold, — more 
beautiful, because more natural, than the well-trimmed 
lawn at Chats worth, or the artistic woodland at Fountain's 
Abbey. 

There was silence, amid the beauty, that the- soul might 

drink it in unrufiled to its utmost depth ; — silence, — the 

deep, solemn, plaintive silence, that the East only knows. 

No murmuring brook, no sighing breeze, no rustling leaf, 

12 



134 EGYPT, PAST Al^^D PRESENT. 

no evening cMme, no lowing herd, no tinkling bell, no hum 
of labor, no buzz of insects, no twitter of birds, no sound 
of welcome, no merry laugh, no call of cattle, not even now 
the distant bark of village dogs, — that sound of Hfe, which, 
in the East, is ever first at morning, and last at night. 
" One dead, uniform silence," — no, not " dead," for while 
it hovered over the grave of generations whose mysterious 
temples, given to the bats, yet proclaim a greatness that the 
present boasts not of, — it hovered not on raven wing, but 
fringed vnth golden light; still, solemn, sad, it yet was 
gorgeous, not funereal, and breathed of sunny life where 
the year knows no winter, and the sky no cloud ; silence, 
when, after the glare of a windless day, the palm-leaf droops 
motionless, and nature breathes not till her fiery conqueror 
has entered his pavilion : silence deep, but not dead ; no, 
nor yet " uniform," for, at intervals, came the harsh, monot- 
onous creak of the sakia, as the lazy oxen turned the wheel 
that watered the plain, or a frightened bird whirred from its 
nest under the fan-leaves of the dom. Yet these sounds 
disturbed not the silence, for sound itself grows plaintive in 
the East, and sinks wearily and monotonously into silence. 
In such silence, the .soul, shut out from all the world of sight 
and sense and sound, sank into a deep, rich calm, and under 
the shadow of the dom gathered the golden threads of 
lingering sunlight, and wove them mto her own gorgeous 
dreams, that melted from gold to orange, from orange to 
saffron, from saffron to purple, and floated away toward the 
land of the West. 

Suddenly I came out upon the bank of the river, where 
the palm-trees had been cleared away for garden cultivation. 
Full thirty feet below lay the stream, which once deposited 
this mass of soil, and which at times rolls over it. Quietly 
it lay, save where a quivering on the surface marked the 
swift current. Here half a mile in width, and for a reach 



TREES AND BIRDS. 135 

of twenty miles, it spread before me like a lake, fringed on 
its under surface with mirrored doms and waving palms, 
while the now motionless dahabeeh pictured its own inverted 
magts and spars and drooping pennon, all " like a painted 
ship upon a painted ocean." By a sweep of the river the 
mountains of Arabia were brought upon three sides of this 
phantom lake, while the Lybian chain loomed darkly behind 
me. I looked towards these, as the sun sank behind their 
huge square mass, here some six hundred feet high, and all 
whitened with the sand of the desert, and saw the black 
shadows creep up from below, while their top was yet 
tipped with crimson and with gold, and when this, too, was 
clothed with purple deepening into brown and gray ; then 
turning toward the Arabian chain, some two miles distant, 
I beheld that still robed in mellow light reflected from the 
zenith, and presently as this faded, both mountain and river, 
and the mirrored mountains in the river, were suffused with 
that dreamy, gauze-like, saffron tint, which is the charm and 
glory of the Orient. It is not mist, it is not haze, but like 
that " dim suffusion " following an excess of brightness that 
dazzled the eyes of Milton, and sealed them into night. 
Yet here the moon already rode resplendent, bringing on 
the silvery noon of night, lustrous without heat, silent with- 
out gloom. The sahias creaked their last round, and the 
plaintive cry of the half-naked fellahs that ply the shadoof, 
died into cadence along the shore, as I climbed down the 
bank to the heat-smitten " Lotus." 

A most beautiful feature in the Nile voyage is the sight 
of birds, as tame as if domesticated, perching on your boat, 
on the housetops, on the palms, on the backs of oxen and 
of camels, chirping, warbling, skipping everywhere as free 
and joyous as if they never knew an enemy. Nor have 
they an enemy in the native population, for the Egyptians 
do not molest birds — only travellers affright them with the 



136 , EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

sportsman's gun. This may be because the Egyptians are 
an unarmed people ; but to whomsoever the credit belongs, 
let Egyptians have the praise of the land where birds are 
safe and free. Most sweetly do they carol at sunrise and at 
sunset in the acacia groves and among the palms. Some, 
of unknown names, are of beautiful plumage and delicate 
form ; but the bird for which the traveller looks from the 
moment he enters 'Egypt, is the pure and sacred Ibis. We 
had several times seen at a distance a bird that we con- 
jectured must be this, and at length we gained a nearer 
view of one, that, by comparison with the sculptured form, 
quite satisfied us of its identity. It was a most delicate 
creature, about a foot in length from the beak to the tip of 
the tail, with long, slender legs, and a neck that curved 
gracefully and terminated in a long, crooked beak. It was 
of stainless white, and when it flew seemed rather to swim 
with gentlest motion on a buoyant sea. The selection of 
such a bird as sacred, and the association of it with their 
religious sculptures, shows a nice sense of beauty in the old 
Egyptians. There swims not in the air a bird of such 
delicacy of form and purity of color. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

NEGADEH SALUTATIONS A COPTIC CHURCH. 

We halted awhile at Negadeh, one of the chief towns of 
the Copts, in the hope of becoming better acquainted with 
these representatives of the ancient Egyptian Church. 
This was the native place of one of our crew, whom we 
took with us as a guide. He had been absent many- 
months from home, and it was curious to observe the 
greetings he received from his townsmen as we passed 
along the streets. The salutations of the Egyptians are 
insufferably tedious. When two persons meet, they touch 
the palms of their hands together, then each touches his 
right hand alternately to his forehead, his lips, and his 
heart, uttering some complimentary wish, and then rej)eats 
the process until the whole vocabulary of compliments is 
exhausted. Their phrases are such as these, which are 
doled out in wearisome succession. " Peace be with you ; " 
" I give you peace ; " " May God bless you ; " " God bless 
you evermore ; " " May God give you peace ; " " Blessing 
has come to dwell with me ; " " May God not desert you." 

The mere interchange of salutations occupies several 
minutes, and after these are ended there seems to be 
nothing more to say. A few whiffs of the pipe are 
exchanged, and the parties separate without ceremony. 
The frequent stops made by our attendant to greet his 
friends, and the time consumed in these salutations, illus- 
trated the caution given by Elisha to Gehazi when he sent 
12* 



138 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

him in haste to restore to life the Shunamite's son. "If 
thou meet any man salute him not ; and if any salute thee, 
answer him not again ; " ■ — do not stop on the road to 
exchange salutations ; but go with all speed to the house of 
mourning. 

In our progress through the village we made frequent 
inquiries for Copts, and the Coptic convent and church. 
The convent we ascertained to be at some distance back 
among the mountains ; but the church was within the town, 
and near at hand. As soon as our object was known, a 
number of very respectable men, wearing the dark Coptic 
turban, gathered about us and conducted us in a body to 
their house of worship. This is a large, square, brick build- 
ing, with a low doorway, and a row of brick pillars in the 
centre. Between the middle pillars is a screen, and behind 
this a rude wooden pulpit, and a reading desk, with a small 
vestry in the rear where the priest robes himself, which is 
also covered with a screen. There are no seats in the 
house, but mats are spread upon the floor, on wliich the 
worshippers sit in oriental fashion. Chairs were brought for 
us, however, and the whole company sat or stood around us 
in a circle on the floor. Directly before us was one who 
seemed to be the principal man of the party, and who took 
the lead in the conversation ; but several of them had most 
intelligent countenances, and heads as finely developed as 
any portrayed in the phrenological charts. We told them 
who we were and where we came from ; but they did not 
seem to have any definite ideas of America until a rude 
map was drawn upon the ground. We informed them of 
the number and the character of our churches, of their mis- 
sionary operations, and especially of their sympathy for 
such as maintained pure religion in lands of darkness, and 
had suffered for Christ's sake and the Gospel's. 

I inquired for a Bible, and they produced a written copy 



A COPTIC CHURCH. 139 

of tlie Psalms, and a Bible printed at Malta with the Coptic 
and the Arabic in parallel columns. In exchange I showed 
them a Bible with oriental illustrations and maps, with 
which they were highly pleased. They also produced a 
copy of their liturgy in Coptic and Arabic. Seeing some 
rude pictures on the walls, executed in a style like the 
coarsest colored lithographs, I inquired whom these were 
designed to represent. They answered, the angels Gabriel 
and Michael, and the Virgin Mary ; but they assured us 
they did not pray to them, nor in any sense worship them, 
but prayed to God through Christ alone. In answer to an 
inquiry whether they prayed for the dead, they showed the 
form of prayer used in the burial-service, but said that they 
did not pray for the dead nor to the saints. There was no 
altar with candles, nor any other marks of superstition, such 
as are seen in Roman Catholic churches — only these few 
pictures. They pray in their families, and have schools for 
their children. They are careful in the observance of the 
Sabbath ; and though they have another larger house of wor- 
ship — which they afterwards showed us — they have not 
room enough for their congregation, there being some twen- 
ty-five hundred Copts in the town. The women sit in the 
churches in a screened gallery, apart by themselves. 

The Copts do not allow of bigamy, and they assured us 
that they are not loose in the matter of divorce, of which 
they have been accused by emissaries of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church and by their Puseyite coadjutors in the Church 
of England. They had already received donations of Bibles 
and Testaments from the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
but said they would be thankful to receive from us any 
Bibles and tracts that we might send them after our return, 
with a view to which we exchanged addresses, which a 
scribe, wearing his inkhorn at his side, wrote very neatly 
upon such scraps of paper as were at hand. They did not 



140 EGT1»T, PAST AND PRESENT. 

complain of any oppression from the government in matters 
of religion, but thought they were compelled to furnish 
more than their quota for the army ; and with the vague 
notion of European influence which all Egyptians seem to 
have, they requested us to interfere for them through the 
consul at Cairo. 

"We spoke to them of the love of Christ dwelling in the 
heart, of our love for them, and our desire to know them 
and to do them good. They said they would be happy to 
have missionaries from America visit them and dwell among 
them. Coffee was then served after the manner of the 
East, hot, strong, without sugar or milk, in tiny cups of 
china poised in egg-shaped brass holders; and leaving a 
donation to the church, we rose to depart. But we were 
not suffered to go alone. Our whole audience of fifty per- 
sons, with accessions on the way, accompanied us to the 
river, and while for nearly an hour we awaited the arrival 
of the boat, they lingered around, learning to pronounce our 
names, and in every possible way expressing their gratifica- 
tion at our visit. The whole interview had been one of the 
utmost cordiality on their part, and they were evidently 
reluctant to have it closed. We were upon the whole quite 
favorably impressed with their appearance. I do not doubt 
that there are sincere Christians among them. As a body, 
however, they have fallen into a formal Christianity, and 
they need more discriminating and practical views of the 
Gospel. They are simple-hearted, and ready to listen to 
the truth. Indeed, I should infer that vital religion has 
been somewhat revived among them by the distribution of 
the Bible, and also by the assaults of a proselyting Romish 
priest, who has been quite zealous, and somewhat successful 
in gaining converts from the Copts. 

The influences used by this priest are thus described by 
a recent proselyte to the Church of Rome, Mr. James Laird 



NEGADEH. 141 

• 

Patterson, in his " Journal of a Tour in Egypt ; " a copy of 
wliicli I chance to have at hand. Speaking of the prose- 
lyting labors of Padre Samuele at Negadeh, he says, " Last 
year Padre Samuele made a journey to Cairo, where he 
had to remain six months, to combat an attempt made by 
the Copts to get a woman divorced from her husband, who 
was a convert of his. He gained his cause by putting the 
people under the consular protection of France. Of course 
it was a most important one. He told us that the church 
has now three millions of souls in Abyssinia, among whom 
four bishops (one of whom is the learned and pious Father 
De Jacobis as Vicar- Apostolic) and twelve Lazarist mis- 
sionaries are laboring. They have ordained many native 
priests — a practice which seems to me not the least admi- 
rable of the Eoman Catholic missionary system. He had 
had a Protestant missionary, with money, and tracts printed 
at the college at Malta, there (at Negadeh) ; and as his 
flock brought him the heretical books, lie made a neat honfire 
of thei7i, while the missionary looked on from his boat {.proha- 
hly with his wife and family) in no small amazement ^^ 

There are some remarkable points in this statement. It 
is from the pen of an educated Englishman, Master of Arts 
from the University of Oxford, who, when he left England, 
was still in the communion of the Church of England, 
though of the " High Church," or Puseyite school ; but who 
has since become " reconciled," as the phrase is, to " the 
Church," i. e. the Roman Catholic communion. The sym- 
pathetic and exultant tone in which he describes the doings 
of this priest, even to the burning of the tracts and Bibles — 
for many of these so-called " heretical books " were copies 
of the New Testament, like those shown us at the Coptic 
church — is painfully significant of the state of things at 
Oxford, and in the High Church party in England. 

What will Archbishop Hughes — who so resolutely de- 



142 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

nied a similar outrage, some years ago, on the borders of 
New York — say to this case of Bible-burning ? He will 
begin with denying the fact. But the fact comes from the 
priest himself, through a young disciple of the Church of 
Eome, who speaks of it not to condemn, but to approve and 
admire. He will say, then, that this priest was isolated, and 
acted without authority. But the Catholic Standard^ an 
English Catholic journal of the first order, in the interest of 
Cardinal Wiseman, says of this very case : " It is a queer 
thing that the agents of the Bible Society should play off 
their pranks in such an obscure and distant place as Nega- 
deh. The honest priest was a trump, and no mistake ; he 
would stand no nonsense with them. Small hlame to Jiim, 
we say, and more power to his elbow the next importation he 
receives J" The elegance of this language is noteworthy ; 
and also the fact that a Eoman Catholic religious journal 
draws its illustrations from card-playing, as if this were per- 
fectly familiar to its readers, and appropriate to priests. 
But the spirit of this paragraph is what deserves attention, 
for it is the too common spirit of the Roman Catholic hierar- 
chy ; and with respect to the burning of Bibles, not to say 
of Bible readers also, the difference between many a Roman 
Catholic priest in England and the United States, and the 
Padre Samuele at Negadeh, is simply that the one is in 
England or the United States, and the other at " such an 
obscure and distant place as Negadeh." 

Is it not time that the Christian missionary, with the Bible 
in his hand, was permanently located in this field ? If the 
Romish priest may work here thus openly, why may not the 
Protestant missionary? May we not say with Paul at 
Ephesus, "-4 great door and effectual is opened to us, and 
there are many adversaries f " 









.^^ 




CHAPTEE XX. 

MOTHER EGYPT THEBES TEMPLES AND MONUMENTS 

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

After twentj-eiglit days of sailing and tracking, — a 
voyage unusually protracted by contrary Avinds and by the 
low stage of the river, — we made our mooring on the east- 
ern bank of Thebes. On a Sabbath morning, — calm, 
bright, and beautifuj, — we awoke under the shadow of 
Karnac. But though we had at last reached the object of 
many longings, and the turning-point in a journey of more 
than six thousand miles from home, the instinct of curiosity 
was absorbed in the emotion of gratitude, and the Sabbath 
was welcomed as a day of rest and of praise. For weeks 
we had talked and read only of Thebes; but now that 
Thebes was gained, New York usurped its place in thought, 
upon its own soil. Such is the power of religious associa- 
tion, and of the sacred memories of hmne. The Sabbath 
ended, a week was given to the exploration of the scenes 
and monuments around us. 

The site of Thebes was chosen with admirable wisdom. 
The parallel ridges of naked limestone hills — the barriers 
of the Lybian and Arabian deserts that for five hundred 
miles skirt the valley of the Nile, at a distance of from three 
to five miles a,part, — here expand into a huge basin of more 
than fifty miles in circumference, and break into peaks of 
from a thousand to thirteen hundred feet high, or file off in 
serried ranks on either side. These mountains guard the 



144 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

plain from the encroachments of the desert and from the 
invasion of enemies. The plain itself is watered by the 
Nile, which Homer styles the " heaven-sprung river," which 
in its yearly overflow heaps upon it the alluvial deposits of 
the mountains of Ethiopia, and which opens to it the com- 
merce of Ethiopia and of the Mediterranean. A short 
caravan march brings to it the commerce of the Red Sea, 
from Arabia, Persia, and the Indies. 

The only present occupants of this plain are a few miser- 
able Arab villagers, whose hovels are built of and amid the 
ruins of the old city. These ruins are found on a stupen- 
dous scale, at five or six prominent points, so related to each 
other that from these we can reconstruct the Thebes of four 
thousand years ago. Though the ruins are chiefly those of 
public buildings — palaces and temples — yet the interior 
magnificence of some of the tombs of private individuals, 
and the pictures of private houses found upon their walls, 
show that not all the wealth of ancient Thebes was in its 
royal coffers. 

Turning to the map, the reader will there find indicated 
the names and localities of the several ruins. Upon the 
western bank are the temples of Medeenet Habou, the 
Memnonium, and Gournou, with others of less note, — the 
colossal statues, andr the principal tombs ; on the eastern 
bank are the temples of Luxor and Karnac. The distance 
from Luxor to Karnac is about a mile and a half; that 
from Luxor to Medeenet Habou is about two and a half 
miles. The river is represented at a moderate stage. 
During the inundation the land is overflowed as far back as 
the colossal statues. 

Medeenet Habou was a palace-temple of grand propor- 
tions, surrounded with huge sphinxes, lions, and colossal 
men. In the front of the main edifice is an oblong court, 
flanked on either hand by pyramidal towers, where was the 



TEilPLES AND MONUMENTS. 145 

pavilion of tlie king. Although the walls of this structure 
are much defaced, its sculptures still exhibit some curious 
scenes of palace life. The king is seated on a rich divan 
receiving the homage and caresses of his wives, who offer 
him flowers, amuse him with chess, or cool him with their 
fans. The grand area of the temple was adorned with 
massive gates, and separated into courts, whose elegant 
corridors were decorated with brilliant colors, and its walls 
covered with historical and descriptive sculptures. The 
pillars of the central court are still standing, and are in a 
style of massive beauty. Enough remains of the temple to 
show its plan, and the scale of grandeur on which it was 
built. Two or three smaller temples, connected with this 
by avenues of symbohcal statues, were originally disposed 
around the main building as adjuncts. 

Northward, some three thousand feet, stood the Memno- 
nium, a temple measuring four hundred feet by one hundred 
and fifty ; its central hall having a solid roof supported by 
forty-eight massive columns, and " studded with stars on an 
azure gi'ound." Most of these pillars and part of the roof 
still remain. The astronomical subjects upon the ceiling 
of a small inner chamber 'of the temple, have furnished a 
clue to the determination of some of the great cycles of 
Egyptian history. 

The Memnonium was built by the great Eameses, and its 
walls are illustrated with his victories, chiefly in Asia. 
Some of these sculptures are quite spirited. In front of the 
building, and flanked by colossal figm^es, the monarch placed 
the most stupendous statue ever reared in the world.* This 
was the personification of Egytian power in the colossal 
image of the king, " seated on a throne in the usual attitude 
of Egyptian figures, the hands resting on his knees, indica- 

* See plate. 
13 



146 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tive of tliat tranquillity which lie had returned to enjoy in 
Egypt after the fatigues of victory." The statue was of one 
solid piece of sienite, and must have been transported from 
the quarry more than a hundred miles. Its weight has 
been computed at upwards of eight hundred and eighty- 
seven tons ; it is said to have been originally seventy-five 
feet high by twenty-three in breadth. By my own measure- 
ment of its fragments, as it now lies broken on the ground, 
I found the forehead fourteen feet from ear to ear ; the 
head twenty-five feet, six inches across from point to point, 
where the back lies upon the ground — the whole circum- 
ference not being accessible ; — the body fifty-one feet, 
measured across the shoulders from their insertion in the 
back, the shoulder itself sixteen feet six inches, the arm 
el(fven feet six inches from shoulder to elbow, and the foot 
five feet ten inches long by four feet eight inches broad. 
This statue was overthrown by Cambyses, the Persian 
conqueror of Egypt, in the year 525, b. c. 

Years before this event, a Hebrew prophet had uttered 
the following remarkable words : " The daughter of Egypt 
shall be confounded ; she shall be delivered into the hand 
of the people of the North ; and they shall spoil the pomp 
of Egypt. I will also destroy the idols, and the pomp 
of her strength shall cease in her. He [the king of Baby- 
lon] shall break also the images- [statues or standing images] 
of Bethshemesh, [the house of the sun,] that is in the land 
of Egypt." * 

The overthrow of such an image, standing at the main 
gate of one of the principal temples of Thebes, may Vt^cU 
have been symbohcal of the destruction of E^ypt. Indeed, 
I know not whether was the greater marvel, to set up this 
gigantic statue, or to throw it down, so as to break the 

* Jeremiah xlvi; 24; and xliii. 13. 



f0 . j^^ liMM III 



> I'l'il iliiiiii', 



«" 




I 



W 

H 

O 

P^ 

o 

3 






TE3IPLES AND MONUMENTS. 147 

solid granite into the huge blocks now strewn upon the 
ground. 

Back under the brow of the mountain stood another tem- 
ple with massive sculptures, and half a mile further to the 
north and nearer the river, stood side by side three temples 
of various styles, all grand and rich, and grouped together 
likewise by rows of statues. 

In front of Medeenet Habou and the Memnonium was a 
sacred way about sixty feet wide, and a mile and a half in 
length, lined on either side with colossal figures of stone 
about thirty feet apart, and ranging from thirty to sixty 
feet in height. Among these were the vocal Memnon and 
its mate that still hold their original position on the plain. 
Their fellows lie broken and buried in the mud. 

Upon the eastern bank of the river — vvdiich was crossed 
by a ferry, or possibly by a bridge stretching from island to 
island — is the temple of Luxor, measuring eight hundred 
feet by two hundred, with a grand colonnade of two hundred 
feet, and a covered portico of equal length facing the river. 
On its northern side is a sculptured gatev\^ay with pyrami- 
dal towers two hundred feet long by seventy in height, — and 
in front of this, gigantic granite statues, and an obelisk of 
red granite sixty feet in height.* The mate of this obelisk 
now stands in the Place de la Concorde at Paris ; where it 
already shows the effects of exposure to weather such as is 
never experienced at Thebes. From this pylon extended 
for a mile and a half an avenue or Sacred way planted on each 
side at distances of from twelve to twenty feet, vdth huge 
sphinxes having heads of lions, birds, rams, oxen, and men. 
This was as if Broadway from the Battery to Canal street 
were lined on both sides with such creations. The remains 
of these figures may be traced along nearly the whole line 
of the ancient dromos. 

* See plate. 



148 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT, 

At the northern extremity of this avenue, after passing a 
series of lofty and massive gates, you arrive at the temple 
of Karnac. To form some conception of this structure, we 
will take as a basis the Croton Keservoir in New York. 
Drain this, and suppose its walls to stand four hundred and 
twenty feet by three hundred and sixty, and nearly one 
hundred feet high by forty in thickness, all of solid stone, in 
blocks of huge dimensions. In one side of this structure 
make a central doorway, seventy feet in height by thirty- 
five inches in width ; plant in front of this a long double 
row of sphinxes and statues, each a single block of stone 
weighing several hundred tons ; within the vacant reservoir 
all around the walls, build a corridor supported by thirty 
massiye columns on each side, and down the centre a double 
row of columns of red granite, each a single shaft fifty feet 
high, and terminating in an expanded leaf, and you have 
the outer court of Karnac. 

In the wall opposite the entrance, make another gateway, 
higher, broader, deeper, its lintels forty-one feet long, and 
before this plant statues thirty feet high. Upon the oppo- 
site side of the wall build another court or portico of the 
same exterior breadth as the first, and three hundred and 
twenty-nine by one hundred and seventy feet in the clear ; 
and to sustain its roof of stone erect one hundred and 
thirty -four columns, varying from forty-two to sixty-six feet 
in height, and from twenty-seven to thirty-six in circumfer- 
ence ; this forms the grand hall of Karnac ; * bejond this 
build an avenue of obelisks each seventy feet high, and other 
massive gates and colossal figures, together with a sanctuary 
of red granite forty feet square — the whole of this part 
occupying an area of six hundred feet by four hundred: 
at the further end of this erect another building, four hun- 

* See frontispiece. 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 149 

dred feet wide, supported by fifty-two huge columns, and 
back of this another massive wall and corresponding gate- 
way ; and on this area of eleven hundred and eighty feet by 
four hundred and twenty, you have the main temple of 
Karnac. Then upon either side of this, and in the rear, 
build long avenues of sphinxes and colossi, to the south-west 
especially, an avenue a quarter of a mile long, connecting 
with the main building, through a series of four massive 
gateways, another temple fully one half its size ; and all 
around dispose smaller temples and gateways, till a circuit 
of a mile and a half is filled with the surroundings of the 
stupendous pile ; — then mount the front gateway of the origi- 
nal reservoir, and look at Karnac. Two thousand feet back 
of you is its outermost gate ; twelve hundred feet back of 
you the rear wall of the main edifice, upon whose superfi- 
cial area you could arrange just fifty Broadway Tabernacles 
side by side ; while to the right and left are other temples 
that would look grandly if they stood alone, but which are 
mere appendages of this. 

As I gazed upon these ruins of forty centuries, and 
imagined the Thebes that then was. New York dwindled 
into an infant in the lap of a giant. Yes, proud upstart of 
this nineteenth century, the so-called Empire city, commer- 
cial emporium of the West, great metropolis of the new 
world, if thy rivers should sweep over thee and bury thee 
awhile, not all the stone of the Croton Reservoir, and the 
City Hall, and the Astor House, and of a hundred churches 
forsooth, would make one pile like Karnac ; nor could any 
of these furnish a single stone for the lintels of its gates. 
Yet Karnac that began to be in that other nineteenth century, 
before Christ, is not yet a ruin. Its gateways stand ; its 
grand hall stands, its columns nearly all unbroken, and not 
one spire of grass, or tuft of moss, or leaf of ivy hides its 
speaking sculptures. Only the sand has covered them, and 
13* 



150 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

wlien this is removed they are as fresh as yesterday. These 
eyes have looked on them, and by them have measured 
thee, O nineteenth century ! 

Such is the skeleton of Thebes, as we can reconstruct it 
of such materials and from such localities as yet mark its 
site. -But what was Thebes when, resting upon the Lybian 
mountains on the west and the Arabian on the east, with the 
Nile flowing through its centre, it filled a circuit of twenty- 
five miles in a plain of twice that area, teeming with fer- 
tihty? What was Thebes when she could pour forth 
twenty thousand chariots of war, and when the grand tri- 
umphal procession of priests, and ofiicers of state, and sol- 
diers, and captives swept through these colossal avenues to 
grace the conquerer's return ? What was Thebes when, by 
the way of the Red Sea, Arabia and the Indies poured all 
their commerce into her lap, and the Nile brought her the 
spoils of Etliiopia and of the Great Sea ? What was Thebes 
when she possessed wealth, and mechanic arts, and physical 
force to rear such monuments even" in the midst of war, and 
sometimes more than one in the reiarn of a sinpjle monarch ? 
What was Thebes, with all the arts and inventions of civ- 
ilized life that are sculptured upon the tombs of her kings to 
mark the progress of their day ; — from building arches and 
bfidges, to glass-blowing and porcelain manufactures, to the 
making of umbrellas, fans, chairs, and divans, fine linens, 
and all the appurtenances of a modern drawing-room ? 
What was Thebes when all merchants resorted thither from 
Persia, from Ethiopia, from Lybia, and the Levant ? What 
was Thebes when the artists and scholars of infant Greece 
and Rome went thither to school? Was not Egypt the 
mother of nations ? Where is the art of Greece or Rome 
that was not tutored in Egypt; — that has not simply 
graced Egyptian forms — nor always this? Where is the 
philosophy of Greece or Rome that was not borrowed from 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 151 

Egypt ? Even the divine Plato, who only waited for the 
true Logos, learned at Egypt's shrine. Egypt gave birth to 
art, gave birth to thought, before Greece and Rome were 
born. She was the grand repository of human power : the 
originator of all great forms of human development; the 
originator, the inventor, the great prototype of the world's 
history, here laid up in her hieroglyphic archives. 

In all material things, yes, and in all great intellectual 
forms, in poetry, in art, in philosophy, in science, and in the 
religion of nature, this nineteenth century is but the recipi- 
ent of the mighty past. Whatever she has of these she but 
inherits through Rome and Greece from their old mother 
Egypt. What she has better than these she has by gift 
divine, through that Christianity which purifies, enfranchises, 
and ennobles man ; reforms society, and makes free the 
state. If she hold fast by this, she will become resplendent 
witli a glory that Egypt never knew ; but if she slight this, 
and sell her birthright for luxury and power, the meanest 
grave at Thebes would suffice to bury this nineteenth cen- 
tury with its boasted inventions. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



MEMNON STILL SOUNDS. 



Upon the western plain of Thebes, about midway between 
the temples of Medeenet Habou and the Memnonium, and 
some thirteen hundred feet in advance of their line, are two 
colossal statues that have sat upon their rock-built thrones 
for three thousand three hundred years, and that still sit 
unchangeably amid the surrounding desolation. In some 
respects these are the most interesting of all the ruins of 
Thebes. They are not ruins, but remains ; for although one 
of them — that renowned in history as the " vocal Memnon " 
— was marred more than two thousand three hundred years 
ago, by the renowned Cambyses, yet it was afterwards 
restored, and it exhibits few marks either of the violence 
of man, or of the ravages of time. Just where Amunoph 
placed them in the line of the majestic dromos, from his 
eastern to his western palace temple, within seventy years 
after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, they now 
stand ; just as he had them chiselled, with the exception 
of the repairs upon the vocal statue, they now look forth 
over the plain with that contemplative majesty which the 
old kings of Egypt chose as the type of their power. 

And do not these monarchs of stone still assert the 
dominion of the eighteenth dynasty of Thebes over this 
plain? Who rules here now, but the spirit that invests 
them with the contemplative majesty of that old dynasty ? 
Not these puny, half clad Arabs, who by day scour the 



.MEMNON STILL SOUNDS. 153 

plain begging a few pence of tlie Hawagee, or offering tlaem 
fragments of mummies and antiques, and by night hide 
themselves in the arches of falling temples, and the broken 
tombs of kings. Not their present master, the redoubtable 
Abbas Pasha, as distinguished in vice as his grandfather 
Mohammed Ali was in policy and in arms, whose relentless 
conscription for his hybrid army now drives the peasantry 
from the plain to the mountains. Not the far off Sultan, 
whose tottering throne is braced by the bayonets of England 
and France, against the colossus of the North. No, none 
of all these. The spirit that here rules is still the spirit 
of the old dynasty, symbolized by these colossi enthroned in 
solitary grandeur in the centre of the plain. It was meet 
that these should stand, and stand alone ; — that while all 
their fellows are prostrate and buried in the sand drifts, or 
in the mud of the Nile, and the temple that they guarded 
is a shapeless mound, they should stand amid the ripening 
grain that covers the grave of their old empire, to assert 
that empire fresh and imperishable in the minds of men. 
It was meet that alone, with the naked mountains as their 
background, and the empty plain around them, and the river 
shrinking in the distance or inundating their base, and the 
excavated columns of Luxor looming beyond, they should 
sit here with their hands upon their knees, their heads erect, 
their brows serene, in that sublime repose with which they 
first sat down amid the spoils of victory, and the grandeur 
of consolidated power. They tell us more than all history, 
that there were giants in those days. 

The Assyrian sculptor achieved his triumph, when. to the 
face of a man, he added the body of an ox, the feet of a 
lion, and the wings of an eagle, — wisdom, strength, domin- 
ion, swiftness, all symbolized in one. But did not the 
Egyptian sculptor achieve a greater triumph, when he 
magnified tenfold the human form, retaining all its propor- 



154 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tions, and invested it with intelligence and dignity, and tlie 
commanding serenity of conscious power ? He, too, could 
magnify inferior animals, and could shape the gigantic and 
mysterious sphinx. But is not the giant age of art here in 
these colossi of the plain ? 

It was meet that of all the double file of colossal statues 
that once stretched across this plain, these two only should 
remain ; — that fabled Memnon, whose music has inspired 
the poetry of all younger nations since mother Egypt gave 
it birth, and its silent mate, for lips of music ever want a 
waiting ear. Here they sit, colossal human figures each 
sixty feet in height, and about seventy feet apart, to mark 
the course of that "royal street," once lined with such 
creations, that stretched more than two miles from east to 
west. They are only less grand than the fallen statue of 
Eameses at the gate of the Memnonium; that measured 
seventy-five feet from head to base, and was hewn from one 
block of sienite ; these are built of layers of coarse, hard 
stone, that now show the seams which doubtless were at first 
concealed. No art could improve them for general effect, 
or even in the details of attitude, and the execution of the 
hands and feet By the measurement of Sir Gardner 
"Wilkinson, they are " eighteen feet three inches across the 
shoulders ; sixteen feet six inches from the top of the 
shoulder to the elbow; ten feet six inches from the top 
of the head to the shoulder ; seventeen feet nine inches from 
the elbow to the finger's end ; and nineteen feet eight inches 
from the knee to the plant of the foot. The thrones are 
ornamented with figures of the god Nilus, who, holding the 
stalks of two plants peculiar to the river, is engaged in 
binding up a pedestal or table, surmounted by the name of 
the Egyptian monarch — a symbolic group, indicating his 
dominion over the upper and lower countries." 

Grand conceptions those old Egyptians had. They were 



MEMNON STILL SOUNDS. 155 

not copyists, but the originators of great thouglits and of 
speaking symbols. Beauty tliey bad, too, as well as 
strength ; for in all the mythology of the old wOrld, there 
is no conception so beautiful as that of the vocal Memnon. 
The easternmost of these statues, upon which the sunbeam^, 
shooting athwart the Arabian mountains and the grand 
colonnade of Karnac, would first fall, when its lips felt the 
kindling ray, would utter one melodious sound like the vibra- 
tion of a harp-string ; — the enthroned majesty of Egypt 
welcoming with praise the returning day, and the stone 
crying out, where man is often dumb ; " Salamat^'' * the 
tradition of the place still calls it ; — " salutations " to the 
morning that ever opens bright and beautiful upon the plain 
of Thebes. No doubt Homer heard it, and felt its poem. 
Herodotus heard it, but he was too matter of fact, and too 
much in the secrets of the priests to own its inspiration. 
Plato heard it, and meditated divine philosophy. Strabo 

* Lepsius insists that the term used by the Arabs is not Salamdt, salu- 
tations, biit Sanamdt, "the idols;'''' and he gives a very singular, if not 
incredible, explanation of the phenomenon of the sounding stone. " The 
stone of which the statues are composed is a particularly hard quartz or 
friable sandstone conglomerate, which looks as if it was glazed, and had 
innumei-able cracks. The frequent crackling of small particles of stone 
at sunrise, when the change of temperature is greatest, in my opinion pro- 
duced the tones of Memnon, far-famed in song, which were compared to 
the breaking of a musical string." 

In proof of this opinion. Dr. Lepsius refers to the phenomenon of crack- 
ing and sounding stones in the desert, when rapidly warmed by the sun, 
after being cooled during the night. "It is also remarkable," he adds, 
"how, even now, several of the pieces that have split off, and are only 
hanging loose, sound as clear as metal if they are struck, Avhile others 
beside them remain perfectly dumb and without sound, according as they 
are more or less moistened by their reciprocal positions." (Letters, pp. 
257, 258.) But how will this explain the uniformity and the continuity 
of the phenomenon ? 

Another writer, who ridicules the idea of artifice in the matter, must 
surely have forgotten the oracle at Delphi, and even the successful impos- 
ture of the automaton chess-player in this country. 



156 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

heard it, but was too intent upon detecting its cause to 
enjoy its effect. It would work grandly within the area 
of St. Peter's. Let Pio Nono transport it thither, and bap- 
tize it as a statue of the fisherman made by Constantino, 
and thousands would hear its voice each morning, or at 
Easter, or whenever the Pope passed, as might be best 
arranged for the edification of the faithful. 

For Memnon still sounds. As we sat before it on our 
donkeys, pondermg unutterable things, I saw a boy of fifteen 
with a solitary rag around his waist, scrambling up the side 
of the statue, and presently he was completely hidden in 
its lap, just where the sly priest used to hide himself over 
night. Then striking with a hammer the hollow, sonorous 
stone, it emitted a sharp, clear sound, like the striking of 
brass. It Avas not sunrise, but the middle of a scorcliing 
afternoon. Yet Memnon sounded. Moreover, it was Wash- 
ington's birthday, and as the statue once sounded three 
times to salute the emperor Hadrian, we made it utter 
three times three " salutations " to the rising empire of the 
West. 

The sound had not yet died on my ear, when the shirtless 
boy was at my side, crymg '^backshish" for he, like all 
priests, must have his gratuity for his temple service. " Half 
a piastre," said the guide. I should have been ashamed to 
pay only two' cents for such a gratification, had I not 
remembered that this, and its equivalent in treacle, is all 
that the present potentate of Egypt pays his subjects for 
a day's labor in his sugar fields. The boy was satisfied, 
though I am sure the guide, who handed it to him, cheated 
him out of half; for an Arab's fingers are wonderfully 
tenacious of money. 

O Memnon, what a crime to break thy spell ! I shall 
never more dream of thee, half waking with the morning 
sun. The priests suborned the sun to do for royalty, 



MEMNON STILL SOUNDS. 157 

what I hired a copper-skinned boy to do for two cents. 
Memnon still sounds. Yes, and a sharp, brassy sound it is ; 
for does it not echo the universal beggar-cry of Egypt — 
" Bachshish-a-Hawagee " — " Hawagee hackshishr 

14 



CHAPTER XXII. 

FRAGMENTS OF THEBAN HISTORY — SOURCES ROSETTA 

STONE HIEROGLYPHICS ANTIQUITIES. 

" O Egypt ! Egypt ! Fables alone will be thy future 
history, wholly incredible to later generations, and naught 
but the letter of thy stone-engraved monuments will sur- 
vive!" Such was the prophecy of the Hermetic books, 
themselves reputed fabulous. Yet Egypt, so long enveloped 
in a mystery as deep as that which surrounds the sj^hinx, 
has at length a history ; and her stone-engraved monuments 
are the living chroniclers of her mighty Past. 

Around me are the yet fresh and legible monuments of a 
city that had stood for sixteen centuries, when Home was 
founded ; that for thirteen hundred years before David 
ascended the throne of Israel in Jerusalem, had furnished 
the major part of the sovereigns of one of the greatest 
empires of the world ; that was at least eight centuries old 
when Cecrops founded Athens; that had existed full four 
hundred years when Abraham pitched his tent upon the 
mountain of Bethel. If not the oldest ruin in the world — 
for it disputes with Nineveh the palm of antiquity — it is 
the grandest and the be^t preserved memorial of ancient 
times. 

But Thebes is not interesting merely as a mighty ruin 
of the past. It is also a Idstory, and from the hieroglyphics 
of its temples and the sculptured chambers of its royal 
sepulchres, it proclaims the great events of that dim 



FRAGMENTS OF THEBAN HISTORY. 159 

antiquity concerning which we have no written record, but 
the fragmentary memorials of the book of Genesis. This 
rude history, carved in granite to commemorate the exploits 
of kings, and to transmit their names and deeds with the 
imperishable sarcophagi of their embalmed dust, now inter- 
preted by the skill of learned men, brings incidental con- 
firmation to the history of the Old Testament, and nowhere 
contradicts that history. 

In all such documents as form the basis of authentic 
history, our materials for the early history of Egypt are 
extremely meagre. The legend of Osiris and Isis, the chil- 
dren of Jupiter, who " elevated the race from the condition 
of cannibals and savages to that of devout and civilized 
nations, who ate bread, drank wine and beer, and planted 
the olive, and who built Thebes with its hundred gates, and 
gorgeous and costly works ; " and the period of twenty-four 
thousand nine hundred years, assigned by Manetho to the 
reigns of gods, heroes, and manes, have not even the 
shadow of a historical basis. The genuineness of the forty- 
two books of Hermes has been questioned by sagacious 
Egyptologers. Of these books two were books of the 
chanter; four were books of astronomy; ten were books 
of the scribe, and treated of hieroglyphics, geography, 
cosmogony, eclipses, cycles, etc. ; ten were ceremonial books ; 
ten were books of the prophets, treating of mythology, with 
a digest of the laws ; and the remaining six were on medi- 
cine. None of the originals of these books remain, unless, 
as Bunsen supposes,* the great book of the dead — a papy- 
rus roll now in the museum at Turin — is one of the 
liturgical series. This conjecture, however, is not received 
by Lepsius, who has examined the papyrus with great care. 
Lepsius argues, that " along with such a historical literature 

* Egypt's Place in Universal History, Book 1, pp. 26-31. 



160 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

engraven in stone," as to this day fills the valley of the 
Nile, " a corresponding historical hook literature must have 
existed ; of course much richer and more complete, though 
we may not be able at present to point out the remains 
of it." * 

The oldest papyri known to exist, do not go farther back 
than the sixteenth century before Christ ; but " this is one 
thousand five hundred years further back than the oldest 
remains of book literature in the whole of antiquity put to 
together." The Book of the Dead belongs to the eighteenth 
dynasty of Egypt, in the fifteenth century before Christ. 
That the art of writing was known to the Egyptians at a 
very early period, is evident from the fact that some of the 
older monuments have upon them the sign of the papyrus 
roll, the stylus, and the inkstand. A beautiful specimen of 
this, and also of the papyrus roll, may be seen in Dr. 
Abbott's valuable museum of Egyptian antiquities, now in 
New York. Bunsen considers phonetic and figurative 
writing as old as Menes. Lepsius states that he found in 
Thebes the tombs of two librarians, — " chiefs over the 
books," — of the fourteenth century before Christ ; and that 
he traced the ruins of a library in a temple of the same 
era, upon whose walls ChampoUion had previously found 
" the representations of Thoth, the God of Wisdom, and 
of Saf, the Goddess of History; then, behmd the former, 
the God of Hearing, and behind the latter, the God of 
Seeing, which significantly reminded the person who was 
entering of the locality." 

The early literature of Egypt, as of all nations, was of a 
religious character, and was chiefiy in the hands of the 
priests. It is claimed, however, by some authorities, that 
" at the very commencement of our Egyptian history, there 

* Letters, (Bohn,) p. 394. 



FRAGMENTS OF THEBAN HISTORY. 161 

was a perfectly formed system of writing, and a Universal 
habit of writing, by no means confined to the priesthood ; " 
that writing had already ceased to be purely hieroglyphic 
and monumental, and that the indigenous papyrus of the 
Nile was used as the medium of history. But be this as it 
may, — admitting that the Egyptians at that high antiquity 
cultivated " book- writing for literary purposes," and that 
in the time of the Persian invasion, there were extant 
twenty thousand books of Egyptian literature, — yet our 
knowledge of Egyptian history as derived from books, comes 
to us altogether at second hand. 

The brief allusions to Egypt in the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, are the earliest authentic fragments of its 
history — which is there introduced only as related to the 
history of another people. " History," says Bunsen, " was 
born in that night when Moses, with the law of God — 
moral and spiritual — in his heart, led the people of Israel 
out of Egypt." Before this Egypt has no proper history ; 
nothing but names and legends, dry records and poetic 
legends, in which no " individuality " appears. 

In this connection, we may rightfully claim for the He- 
brew Scriptures as the most ancient documents in the 
world, — documents that bear intrinsic evidence of their 
truthfulness, and that have never been impeached, — the 
same credence and confidence that are given to the writings 
of Herodotus so many centuries later. Viewed merely as 
a history, upon the grounds of historical criticism, the Pen- 
tateuch should no more be kept on trial to be judged by 
Herodotus, than Herodotus should be kept on trial to be 
judged by the Pentateuch. The same critical tests should be 
applied impartially to both. And I would submit that since 
the Hebrew Scriptures, as a history, have thus far stood all 
the tests of criticism commonly applied to ancient docu- 
14* 



162 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

ments, tliey should be received as an historical authority, 
until their testimony can be successfully impeached. 

The oldest historical authority among the Egyptians 
themselves, is Maneilio the Sebennyte, a priest of the tem- 
ple of Isis, who flourished in the time of the first Ptolemy, 
from 322 to 284, b. c. He compiled in Greek the chrono- 
logical records of Egypt, from monuments and tradition. 
Though the original work of Manetho is lost, fragments of 
it are preserved in Josephus, Eusebius, and others ; and we 
have also the complementary lists of Eratosthenes. These 
fragments are especially valuable for the lists of Egyptian 
kings, and the outlines of successive or contemporary dy- 
nasties. According to Manetho, the Egyptian monarchy had 
stood in all three thousand five hundred and fifty-five years, 
of which two thousand two hundred and fifty pertained to 
the Old and Middle empires. His lists embrace thirty dynas- 
ties, of which from the eighteenth to the thirtieth — a period 
of thirteen hundred years — none were contemporary. 

Herodotus, the father of Greek history, visited Egypt 
460, B. c, and formed a somewhat intimate acquaintance 
with the priests of the country, from whom he picked up 
the anecdotes, traditions, and memoirs that formed its then 
current history. He first reduced the history of Egypt to 
a scientific form ; but he was altogether too credulous and 
too admiring ; and it is the opinion of the learned, that in 
reliable chronology we can follow Herodotus no further back 
than to the seventh century before Christ. 

Notwithstanding his facilities for knowing the country and 
its institutions, Herodotus maintains a most provoking 
silence just when he has stimulated curiosity to the utmost, 
and holds in reserve the very facts we most desire to know. 
His regard for public morals, in suppressing what he had 
learned of the mysteries of Egyptian worship, coming from 
a Greek of that period, is as notable as that evinced by 



FRAGMENTS OP THEBAN HISTORY. 163 

Pio Nbno in suppressing the exhibition of the disinterred 
wickedness of Herculaneum and Pompeii in the Ifuseo 
Buorhonico at NapleSj as prejudicial to the public virtue. 
It were better, perhaps, that the mummy and the lava 
should tell to us the whole story of the Past, — its frauds, 
its vices, and its crimes, — than that their testimony should 
be suppressed by such censors of morality. 

Diodorus Siculus, a Greek of Sicily, visited Egpyt in the 
year 58, b. c. But from his want of a chronological 
method and of a just discrimination, he added little to the 
authentic materials of Egyptian history. Bunsen charac- 
terizes his work as a " rhetorically patched and plastered 
Mosaic," and says that " he smothered with chaff the golden 
grains of genuine Egyptian tradition." 

After all, but little reUance can be placed upon the lists 
of Manetho, which have come down to us through such 
imperfect channels. Sir Gardner Wilkinson well observes, 
that " the primeval history of states, especially at so remote 
an epoch, must necessarily be a matter of pure conjecture, 
since they are beyond the reach of authentic records ; and 
if those nations themselves had handed down to us what 
they deemed their real annals, we should find them so com- 
plicated and improbable, that it would be out of our power 
to separate truth from fiction. Such is the character of the 
uncertain fragments of Manetho, preserved by later wri- 
ters." * 

Well then may we repeat the prediction of the books of 
Hermes, " Egypt, Egypt, fables alone will be thy future 
history, wholly incredible to later generations ; and naught 
hut the letter of thy stone-engraved monuments luill endured 

Our main reliance for the history of Egypt, must be upon 
the imperishable monuments on her own soil : those mute, 

* Ancient Egyptians, vol. i. p. 26. 



164 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

unchanging clironiclcrs, upon wliose face the sculptured 
Past is ever present to witness for itself. These form the 
"dial-plate of history." Each temple, each palace, each 
obelisk, each tomb in Egypt, is not only a monument, but a 
history of an individual and his times, or of the nation at 
large. Deep in the face of the imperishable granite or 
of the firm sandstone that enters into the structure of nearly 
every building and monument, are graven the names or 
titles of kings, their own full length portraits, and the lead- 
ing events of their reigns, in battle scenes, coronation cere- 
monies, religious and civil processions, — a pictorial history 
of each monarch, with the manners and customs of the 
people. These sculptures, unimpaired by moisture or by 
the growth of lichens, in a climate of almost perpetual 
drought, and in some instances protected by the fine sand 
that has drifted in upon them from the desert, retain much 
of their original freshness, and are far more clean, legible, 
and sharply defined, than sculptures of a few hundred years 
ago upon the ruined abbeys, monasteries, and cathedrals of 
England and Scotland. The sculptures and pictures upon 
the walls of tombs hewn from limestone rock, and protected 
from dampness by the absence of rain and of vegetable 
growth, likewise retain in form and in coloring a distinct- 
ness that makes them the speaking witnesses of buried 
generations. From these records of stone niust we learn 
the history of Egypt, unwritten in books. 

To appreciate the present value of these monuments, the 
reader should bear in mind the preservative influence of the 
climate of Egypt, and the inducement of a people living in 
such a climate to commit their historical records to the im- 
perishable stone. The temples of the Upper Nile were 
chiefly built upon the margin of the desert, beyond the 
reach of the annual inundation. The valley of the Nile 
abounds in limestone and sandstone, the best materials for 



HIEROGLYPHICS. 165 

sucli buildings. In the Lower Nile are found " solid num- 
mulite limestone," fit for building, and also limestone " of the 
finest grain, approaching almost to marble," capable of a 
high polish and well adapted to the purposes of sculpture. 
Above Thebes sandstone abounds, and at Assouan sienite 
and granite. 

The Egyptians " had so far overcome the technical difii- 
culty of engraving, both in the most fragile and the hardest 
kinds of stone, that tliis seems hardly to have been consid- 
ered at all, though their signs were not composed of simple 
mathematical strokes, like the Roman or Greek monumental 
writing, or the cuneiform writing of the Asiatics, but were 

at the same time writing and artistic drawing 

No colossus was so great, and no amulet so small, that it 
should not itself express for what it was designed by means 
of an inscription ; no piece of furniture that did not bear 
the name of its owner. Not only the temples had their 
dedications, in which the builder was named, and the god to 
whom it was consecrated by him, but these were considered 
of such importance that a particular class of independent 
monuments were especially devoted to them, viz. the obe- 
lisks at the entrance of the gates ; and besides this, every 
fresh addition to the temple, every newly erected pillar, actu- 
ally even the restoration of separate representations, which 
had been accidentally injured upon the old walls, had a 
written information respecting which of the kings built it, 
and what he had done for the enlargement, embellishment, 
and restoration of the temple. We sometimes find the 
name of the reigning king recorded upon the separate 
building stones, as the stone-cutter's mark, and it was 
usually stamped upon the bricks of royal manufacture." * 

The ChevaHer Bunsen eloquently confirms this testimony. 

* Lepsius, 379. 



166 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

" No nation of the earth has shown so much zeal and inge- 
nuity, so much method and regularity, in recording the 
details of private life, as the Egyptians. Every year, 
month, and even day of their life, under this or that king, 
was specially noted down. No country in the world afforded 
greater natural facilities for indulging such a propensity 
than Egypt, with its limestone and granite, its dry climate, 
and the protection afforded by its deserts against the over- 
powering force of nature in southern zones. Such a coun- 
try was adapted not only for securing its monuments against 
dilapidation, both above and below ground for thousands of 
years, but even for preserving them as perfect as the day 
they were erected. In the north, rain and frost corrode, in 
the south, the luxuriant vegetation cracks or obliterates the 
monuments of time. China has no architecture to bid defi- 
ance to thousands of years, — Babylon had but bricks, — in 
India the rocks can barely resist the wanton power of nature. 
Egypt is the monumental land of the earth, as the Egyp- 
tians are the monumental people of history. Their contem- 
porary records, therefore, are at once the earliest and most 
certain source of all Egyptian research." * 

The key to these records was given in the Rosetta stone 
— a fragment of black basalt about three feet square, 
found at Rosetta in 1799, by a French engineer who was 
fortifying the town. This stone bore a threefold inscription ; 
in Greek, in the inchorial, demotic, or common writing of 
Egypt, and in the ancient hieroglyphic character. The 
Greek inscription was found to relate to the coronation of 
Ptolemy Epiphanes, in the second century before Christ; 
and the importance of the stone as giving a clue to the 
interpretation of the hieroglyphics was at once perceived by 
the French savans. By the fortunes of war this stone was 

* Egypt's Place in History, Vol. 1, p. 31. 



ROSETTA STONE. 167 

at length deposited in tlie British Museum ; but to France 
as the discoverer of the stone was reserved the honor of de- 
ciphering it. Dr. Young found the key but could no't open the 
lock. ChampoUion, with more than oriental necromancy, fit- 
ted the key to every ward. He discovered the hieroglyphic 
alphabet to be both pictorial and phonetic ; — a picture repre- 
senting an idea, and the name suggesting also an analogy of 
sound. Each year makes new additions to the science of 
interpreting these symbols, and the page of Egypt is- 
unfolded to the scholar of this nineteenth century just as it 
was written in the nineteenth century before Christ. 

The deciphering of the Rosetta stone was such a curious 
piece of ingenuity, that those not already familiar with the 
process will be glad to know how it was accomplished. 
The Rosetta stone has a group of characters inclosed in a 
ring — now called a cartouch, which from its frequent 
occurrence was assumed to be the proper name Ptolemy, 
which occurs several times in the Greek translation under 
the hieroglyphics. The same ring is found on an obelisk 
brought from Philae ; the Greek inscription on which also 
mentions the name of Ptolemy and Cleopatra. The obelisk 
has also another ring, with a different group of characters, 
and this was conjectured to answer to the Greek name of 
Cleopatra. 

On comparing the rings it was observed that the first 
character in the name of PTOLEMY corresponded 
with the fifth in C L E P A T R A , just as in the Greek 
and the Enghsh. This character, therefore, which is a 
square block, or package, was assumed to be P. The third 
character in Ptolemy's name and the fourth in Cleopatra's 
are also alike, both in the Greek and in the hieroglyphics. 
Hence the knotted cord in the hieroglyphics was assumed to 
have the power of 0. The fourth letter in Ptolemy and the 
second in Cleopatra are the same ; and in the hieroglyphics 



168 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

both are represented by a lion. This, therefore, has the 
power of L. Again, the sixth and ninth letters of Cleopa- 
tra are the same ; and both these are represented by a 
hawk, which therefore equals A. 

With this clue it was easy to construct an alphabet. * 
The most important monuments in the chronology of 
Egypt are the "palace-registers" of Thebes and Abydos, 
which give lists of kings supplementary to those of Mane- 
tho and of the Royal Papyrus in the Turin Museum. At 
Thebes, Thothmes III., who is supposed to have been con- 
temporary with Moses, is represented as making royal offer- 
ings to his ancestors, who are styled the kings of the Upper 
and Lower country, and who to the number of sixty-one, are 
sculptured in rows, sitting on either hand of the reigning 
sovereigns. At Abydos, Rameses the Great, in like manner, 
offers libations to fifty ancestors. 

In constructing from such materials a chronological his- 
tory of Egypt, the first point is to make the monuments 
and the written chronicles tally. Bunsen well remarks, that 
" the dynastic method confounds contemporaneous and con- 
secutive events in the same series. The historical alone is 
chronological." As the general result of his own compari- 
sons, he assigns to the old empire thirty-eight kings, and a 
period of one thousand and seventy-six years ; to the mid- 
dle empire, during the invasion of the Hyksos, fifty-three 
kings and nine hundred years; and to the new empire, 
beginning with the eighteenth dynasty, thirteen hundred 
years. He also affirms that " there exist Egyptian monu- 
ments, the date of which can be accurately fixed, of a higher 
antiquity than those of any other nation known in history, 
— above five thousand years^ The chevalier thinks it not 
worth while, upon so grand a scale, to dispute about a few 

* See Wiseman's Lectures, and Osborn's Monumental History of Egypt. 



SOURCES. 169 

thousand years ; for lie claims that by the laws 1)f develop- 
ment there must have been a period of Origines before his- 
tory, which places Egypt in the " middle ages " of man. 
These extravagant assumptions willbe hereafter considered. 
They serve to show the importance of Egyptian chronology. 

All sources and authorities agree that Egypt was colon- 
ized from the East, by the emigration of Khem or Ham, 
and his immediate posterity. It is plain also from a com- 
parison of the monuments in the valley of the Nile, that 
civilization advanced from the north, and did not enter 
Egypt from Ethiopia. Lepsius affirms that "nothing can 
be discovered of a primitive Ethiopian civilization," and 
that " whatever in the accounts of the ancients does not rest 
on total misapprehension, only refers to Egyptian civilization 
and art, which had fled in the time of the Hyksos rule to 
Ethiopia." 

When we consider that an agricultural people advance 
much more rapidly in the arts of civilized life than do shep- 
herd or nomadic tribes, that the immense productiveness of 
the valley of the Nile would sustain a large population in 
comparative ease and luxury, that the dependence of the soil 
upon the yearly inundation would lead its inhabitants to 
observe the seasons and to note physical phenomena, and 
especially the facts of astronomy, and that the preservation 
of the towns and the irrigation of the fields would alike re- 
quire the construction of massive dykes, dams, and canals, 
we can readily believe that at an early period, the valley 
of the Nile held in its bosom a population of seven millions 
— well advanced in the art of architecture and in physical 
science, and capable of rearing the stupendous monuments 
that we now behold. From their isolated position, the 
Egyptians had, as a matter of course, a provincial and 
national development. 

Egypt seems at first to have existed under a hierarchical 
15 



170 EGYPT, PAST AKD PRESENT. 

government, administered by the priesthoods collectively or 
in rotation, as the representatives of the various deities that 
had already usurped the place of the one God. But in the 
natural course of things this hierarchical government issued 
in a monarchy of which Menes is the first known represen- 
tative. The monarch, however, continued to be of the order 
of the priesthood, or was initiated into the priesthood on 
his accession to the throne. 

Menes is the starting point in reliable Egyptian history. 
He is the first truly historical character in the annals of the 
nation. Before him we find only the fabulous reigns of 
gods and demi-gods. All Egyptologists agree in regarding 
Menes as a historical person, and as the head of the Egyp- 
tian empire. It is therefore of the utmost importance to 
Egyptian chronology, to fix with accuracy the era of his 
reign. This may be proximately ascertained in two ways : 
viz. by reckoning back from known data through the lists 
of Manetho and the tablets of Thebes and Abydos, hy an 
average of reigns^ and by those great astronomical cycles 
with which the Egyptians marked the annals of their 
empire. Much will depend, however, upon the question 
whether certain dynasties were consecutive or contempo- 
raneous ; — a question to which I shall presently recur. 

Lepsius, assuming the year 340 b. c, to be the concluding 
year of the Egyptian dominion, adds to this the three thou- 
sand five hundred and fifty-five years that Manetho assigns 
for the duration of the Egyptian monarchy, and thus makes 
the year 3893 b. c. the first of Menes, which he regards as 
perfectly historical. The Chevalier Bunsen, as we have 
seen, adopts as a general result, three thousand two hundred 
and seventy-six years as the whole duration of the empire, 
which, dating back from either the Macedonian or the Per- 
sian invasion, would make the era of Menes as remote as 
that determined by Lepsius, and nearly contemporary with 



ANTIQUITIES. 171 

the creation of Adam, according to the commonly received 
chronology of the Bible. 

Sir Gardner Wilkinson makes Menes more modern by 
more than a thousand years (2320 b. c), and regards any 
attempt to fix the precise era of his accession as " fruitless 
and unsatisfactory." Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, an English 
scholar of much promise in this department, gives to Menes 
the more modest era of 2717 b. c, which, however, is still 
anterior to the Hebrew chronology of the flood. According 
to this writer, the Egyptian empire began ybz^r tlioiisand jive 
hundred and seventy years ago. Menes built the city of 
Memphis nearly opposite the site of modern Cairo, and 
turned the course of the Nile some twenty miles above the 
city in order to secure it against inundation. He is sup- 
posed to have been a Theban, and either to have founded or 
enlarged the city of Thebes. This places the foundation of 
that city nearly three thousand years before Christ. The 
date of the great pyramid, according to the best authorities, 
is 2352 B. c. Menes is said to have been killed by a hip- 
pojiotamus. 

With reference to the successors of Menes for about a 
thousand years, there has been much confusion in Egyptian 
chronology. The long lists of kings given by Manetho, 
and supplemented from tablets and papyrus records, have 
seemed to require by the common average of reigns, a much 
longer period from Menes to Moses than the chronology of 
the Hebrew Scriptures allows between the flood and the 
Exodus. But IjTr. Poole, in his HorcB Egyptiacce, attempts 
to solve this difficulty by showing from data hitherto over- 
looked but seemingly conclusive, that these lists include con- 
temporaneous dynasties, — in one instance not less than four 
lines of kings over different provinces of Egypt at the same 
time. We have long been familiar with the invasion of the 
Hyksos — kings of Bashan or Canaanites, a mixture of 



172 EGYPT, TAST AND PRESENT, 

Phenicians and Arabs, known as the Royal Shepherds, 
who took Memphis about 2080 b. c, and who ruled iii 
Lower Egypt for more than five hundred years, while the 
capital of Upper Egypt was Ahydos. The discovery of other 
contemporary dynasties, announced by Mr. Poole, reduces 
the chronology of the monuments of Egypt to a near har- 
mony with that of the Septuagint. 

To illustrate this point, we may suppose a historian to 
give a list of all the German sovereigns without intimating 
that they are contemporaneous rulers over Austria, Prussia, 
Bavaria, and other divisions of the vast empire of Germany. 
With this list in hand, we find genealogical registers of par- 
ticular houses or branches of these reigning families, which 
omit all reference to others. The problem is, how to har- 
monize these tables. If we read the first list consecutively, 
giving to each king an average reign, we shall prolong in- 
terminably an empire whose dynasties really run parallel 
and cover a much shorter period. 

All Egyptologists admit that some of the Egyptian dy- 
nasties were contemporaneous, and that the lists of Manetho 
are not to be read in a continuous chronological line. Indeed, 
if Manetho's lists are read consecutively, it is impossible to 
harmonize them with the tablets at Thebes and Abydos. 

Lepsius makes this concession, viz. : " That several of the 
dynasties were contemporaneous, appears to me most de- 
cidedly attested ; and I have been able to obtain a direct, 
and, as I believe, a genuine Manethonic proof of it." * The 
Chevalier Bunsen continually corrects Manetho from Era- 
tosthenes, whom he regards as the better authority. He 
also says expressly, " The thirteenth dynasty from its third 
king downwards, represents the series of tributary monarchs 
of the race of imperial sovereigns who held possession of 

* Chronology of the Egyptians; dedication to Bunsen. 



ANTIQUITIES. 173 

Thebes during the time of the Hyksos." Here then, was a 
tributary Theban dynasty, contemporaneous with the dy- 
nasty of the Shepherds in Lower Egypt. The principle of 
contemporaneous dynasties is thus fully admitted ; Mr. Poole 
merely extends its application. " By the evidence of coeval 
monuments," some of which he has himself discovered, he 
proves the contemporaneousness of certain of the first seven- 
teen dynasties with others of the same portion of Manetho's 
list. By studying the astronomical subjects on the ceiling 
of the Memnonium, and the astronomical data of mon- 
uments and tombs, he has discovered an astronomical cycle 
in use among the Egyptians, dating from the coincidence of 
the vernal equinox with the day of the new moon, — a 
cycle of fifteen hundred years, called the Tropical Cycle. 
He has also discovered a great panegyrical year — a cycle 
of panegyrics or festivals, nearly answering to the prophet- 
ical year of the Scriptures, and that the beginning of the 
first year of this sort, b. c. 2717, is the era of Menes, the 
first king of Egypt. He has harmonized all the ancient 
Egyptian divisions of time, and verifies his system by " the 
consistency of its component parts." He harmonizes, also, 
the lists of Manetho and the tablets, and reads intelligently 
the records of the first seventeen dynasties, that have 
hitherto given so much perplexity. His system tallies with 
itself and with the monuments, and synchronizes with all 
known data of Egyptian history. His readings are ac- 
cepted by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and his astronomical 
cycles are confirmed by the calculations of Mr. Airy, the 
Astronomer Royal at Greenwich. 

Of course, the details of Mr. Poole's discoveries cannot 
be given here ; but their results are shown in the following 
diagram, for which I am indebted to the Journal of Sacred 

Literature. 

15 * 



174 



EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 



Menes, 1st King of 1st Dynasty, b. c. 2717. 
3rd Cir. 2650. 






gcrq 



B 



.+1^ 15th Elephantinites. 



6th 



9th H 



11th 



7 th 



8th 



12th 



Rephaite Nations. 



QjUth 



10th 



13th 



15th 



16th 



17th 



Cir. 1525. Egypt united in the 18th Dynasty. 



ANTIQUITIES. 175 

It is obvious, at a glance, that if all these parallel dynas- 
ties were extended in one consecutive line, the chronology 
of the Egyptian empire would be expanded by thousands 
of years. But on what grounds does Mr. Poole break them 
up into parallel lines ? This is done chiefly upon the evi- 
dence of coeval monuments. For examjDle, in the tomb of 
a high functionary near the great pyramid, are two in- 
scriptions which declare that the occupant of the tomb was 
" devoted to Assa," and " devoted to Unas." Now Assa was 
was the fifth shepherd-king of the fifteenth dynasty, ruling 
at Memphis, and Unas was a legitimate Egyptian king, the 
last of ih.Q fifth dynasty, who ruled in Upper Egypt. These 
two dynasties, therefore, were contemporary, which is con- 
firmed by the fact that " in the Royal Turin papyrus, the 
fifteenth dynasty immediately follows the sixth ; the one con- 
cluding, and the other commencing in the same fragment." 
So James I. of England reads James VI. of Scotland, when 
two dynasties were merged in one. 

Again, the royal tablet of Karnac, now in the Louvre, 
already referred to as containing the names of sixty-one 
kings, " is divided into Diospolite [Theban] kings and kings 
contemporary with them." These kings have different titles, 
according to their relative rank ; some being styled " Lords 
of Upper and Lower Egypt," and others merely having the 
title "chief" or " j)rince." This is as if England, Scotland, 
Wales, and Ireland were independent sovereignties, but all 
of British origin, and Macaulay should engross their 
monarchs upon one tablet as kings of Britain ; an illustra- 
tion which may serve to show the nature of the evidence 
of contemporaneousness from coeval monuments. This is 
enough for the purposes of the present volume. I only add, 
that Sir Gardner "Wilkinson indorses these discoveries of 
Mr. Poole in the following terms : " I have much pleasure 
in stating how fully I agree with him in the contempora- 



176 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

neousness of certain kings, and in the order of succession 
lie gives to the early Pharaohs." 

The value of the tropical cycle is in fixing with accu- 
racy the date of an early Pharaoh. This is a lunisolar 
cycle of fifteen hundred years. The hieroglyphical signs of 
the conjunction of the vernal equinox with the new moon, 
occur twice upon the Egyptian monuments. The first 
instance is, in the reign of Amenemha II. — the second 
king of Manetho's twelfth dynasty — which, from the monu- 
ments, can only be approximated to the year 2000, b. c. 
The second is in the reign of Amasis, the last monarch of 
the twenty-sixth dynasty, or " when Egypt was a province 
of the Persian empire under Darius Hystaspes, b. c. 507." 

This second epoch is well known, being but half a cen- 
tury prior to the visit of Herodotus to Egypt, and less than 
two hundred years before Manetho. Now Mr. Airy, the 
astronomer royal at Greenwich, by strictly astronomical 
calculations has ascertained that " the new moon of March, 
B. c. 506, fell on the 28th day of that month, and the true 
vernal equinox on the preceding day; and that the new 
moon of April, b. c. 2005, fell on the 8th day of that 
month, and the true vernal equinox fell on the preceding 
day." Here, then, the sun and moon, set for signs and for 
seasons, and for days and years, answer as faithful wit- 
nesses to the sculptured stone, and fix the date of Ame- 
nemha II., the beginning of the first lunisolar cycle of 
Egyptian chronology, in the year b, c. 2005. 

In like manner, by a careful calculation, Mr. Poole veri- 
fies the Calendar of Panegyries, and fixes the date of 
Menes, — the beginning of the Egyptian monarchy, — 
when this cycle of festivals had its origin, in the year 
B.C. 2717. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 

" The annals of the Greeks and Hebrews agree in the 
early arts and plenty of Egypt : but this antiquity supposes 
a long series of improvements; and Warburton, who is 
almost stifled by the Hebrew, calls aloud for the Samaritan 
chronology." 

"With this sneer, the accomplished historian of the Decline 
and Fall of the Roman empire would set aside the authen- 
ticity of the Bible, as if its moral ta;uths, appealing to the 
deepest consciousness of man, and its religious history of 
mankind, were invalidated by the errors of transcribers in a 
few chronological numbers, or by the preference expressed 
by a biblical scholar for one manuscript or version above 
another ! But Gibbon was too disingenuous to appreciate 
the scholarly frankness of Warburton. 

In the preceding chapter, we have seen that Mr. Poole 
reduces the proper historical era of Menes to 2717 b. c. 
But this era of Menes is still anterior to the date of the 
flood, according to the biblical clu-onology of Archbishop 
Uslier. Is it, therefore, to be rejected as invalidating the 
historical facts of the Bible, or is the Bible to be questioned 
in its matters of fact, because the chronology of Egyptian 
monuments differs from the chronology of the Hebrew text ? 
Neither of these inferences is necessary. 

The chronology of the Old Testament is by no means 
settled on a scientific basis.* As it stands in the common 



178 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

text, it harmonizes neither with itself nor with the numeri- 
cal epochs of Old Testament history, which are given in the 
New Testament. In the Book of Kings, four hundred and 
eighty years are reckoned from the Exodus to the building 
of the temple ; * and in the book of Exodus four hundred 
and thirty years are given for the sojourning of the Israelites 
in Egypt, f But the sum of the individual numbers given 
in the Book of Judges, to mark the rulers from Joshua to 
Samuel, does not answer fitly to that given in the Book 
of Kings for the whole period from Moses to Solomon. 
Again, Paul computes four hundred and fifty years, in 
round numbers, as the term of the judges from Joshua to 
Samuel. | 

Similar discrepancies exist with regard to the other 
period, — from Jacob to the Exodus. In Exodus this is 
given at four hundred and thirty years ; but Paul reckons 
these four hundred and thirty years from the time of 
Ahraham to the giving of the law ; § herein following the 
Septuagmt, which reads, " Now the dwelling of the children 
of Israel, which they dwelt in the land of Egypt and in the 
land of Canaan, [i. e. from Abraham to Jacob,] was four 
hundred and thirty years." And for this same period we 
find recorded only four generations. 

Here, then, are disagreements in the received chronology, 
which cannot be harmonized without some change of num- 
bers. The whole difficulty is prior to Solomon. Bunsen 
admits that from Rehoboam, who was contemporary with 
Shishak or Sesonchis, of the twenty-second dynasty, to 
Zedekiah and Jeremiah who were contemporary with 
Pharaoh Hophra, of the twenty-sixth dynasty, all the Scrip- 
ture dates in relation to Egyptian history, " accord in the 
most satisfactory manner with the traditions and contempo- 

* 1 Kings vi. 1. f Exodus xii. 40. 

X Acts siii. 20. * § Gal, iii. 19. 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 179 

rary monuments of Egypt." He believes also in the liistoric 
personality of Joseph and of Abraham, but regards the 
biblical record as one of epochs and not of pedigrees. He 
finds no prominent personage, and no genealogical register, 
between " Joseph the Settler " and " Moses the Deliverer," 
and "no certain chronology" from Moses to Solomon; and 
indeed " no systematic historical tradition before Solomon." 
Now it is well known that the chronology of the Septuagint 
differs materially from that of the Hebrew text. Two 
causes have been assigned for this. By some it is claimed 
that the Septuagint is entitled to a higher authority than the 
Hebrew text, because, although a version, it is older than 
any Hebrew manuscript now extant, and may be assumed 
to conform more nearly to the original text than does the 
present Hebrew text itself; that is, that the presumption of 
accuracy in the numbers is in favor of the Septuagint as 
older, and nearer to the origmal. The other view is, that 
" the Septuagint writers altered advisedly our present He- 
brew," in view of the chronological data of Egyptian history 
and monuments. The Greek translation of the Old Testa- 
ment, known as the version of " the Seventy," was made at 
Alexandria in the third century before Christ. It was 
made by men who united the careful culture of the Greek 
to the religious faith and the ancestral pride of the Jew ; 
men who, as Jews, would guard with jealous care the sacred 
books and the traditions of their nation, and who, as Alex- 
andrian scholars, would avail themselves of all the collateral 
light from the books, the traditions, and the monuments of 
Egypt. They had before them the lists of Manetho, or the 
sources from which he copied ; they had before them all 
the treasures of that great library of the world — "the 
heiress of Heliopolis, of Memphis, and of Thebes, where 
Egyptian and Hellenic wisdom sat side by side ; " they had 
before them the monuments of Egypt, and the means of 



180 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

interpreting those monuments. It cannot be doubted tliat 
the Seventy made the most perfect chronological arrange- 
ment of the Old Testament history, that a devout religious 
sentiment, guided by an intelligent acquaintance with con- 
temporaneous monuments, could determine. 

Shall we, then, accept their numbers as satisfactory ? If 
Paul did so in one instance, may not we do so in other cases, 
where the numbers of the Hebrew text are contradictory ? 
It is in numbers, and especially in numbers as indicated by 
the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, that a transcriber would 
be most likely to err. If the Septuagint, — a version of 
the Old Testament three centuries older than the New Tes- 
tament, — oiFers an harmonious and consistent chronology, 
why not accept it ? 

Mr. Poole's discoveries, verified by Mr. Airy's calcula- 
tions, harmonize with the Septuagint. And on the basis of 
those discoveries he fixes the date of the Exodus within four 
j^ears of Dr. Hales' Chronology, and synchronizes all later 
biblical dates with the Egyptian monuments. Is not a 
chronology which, determined from independent sources, 
harmonizes with that of the most ancient translation from 
the Hebrew Scriptures, — dating from the third century 
before our era, — which brings iiito an intelligible form the 
lists and records of ancient authorities, which meets all the 
requisitions of known history, and makes the monuments, 
the moon, and the stars alike witnesses for its accuracy 
likely to prove the true chronology of Egypt and of the 
Bible? That this chronology carries back the flood a few 
hundred years no more invalidates the facts of Bible his- 
tory, than the preadamic ages of geology invalidate the 
account of the creation given by Moses. Since biblical 
chronology is not satisfactorily ascertained from internal 
evidences, we may well seek to adjust the data of the Bible 
to a system so well established as this of Mr. Poole. Rightly 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 181 

viewed^ lils results, as he himself affirms, "vindicate the 
Bible, showing that the monuments of Egypt in no manner, 
on no point, contradict that sacred book, but confirm it." 

The chronology of the Hebrew text, followed by Usher, 
gives sixteen hundred and fifty-six years from the creation 
to the deluge: that of the Septuagint gives for this period 
two thousand two hundred and sixty-two years. Usher, 
following the Hebrew, gives two hundred and ninety-two 
years from the flood to Abraham, and four hundred and 
seventy-nine years from the Exodus to the building of the 
temple. Dr. Hales,, following nearly the Septuagint, gives 
for the former one thousand and two years, and for the 
latter, six hundred and twenty-one. According to Usher, 
the Creation was b. c. 4004: according to Hales, B.C. 5411. 

Such ai'e examples of the differences among learned men 
with regard to the method and the extent of biblical chro- 
nology. The subject is by no means settled. But the dis- 
coveries of Mr. Poole, instead of being looked upon with 
suspicion, when taken in connection with the oldest version 
from the Hebrew Scriptures, should be welcomed as an ap- 
proximation to the final and satisfactory settlement of this 
vexed question. 

16 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

HISTORY CONTINUED — CORRESPONDENCES WITH THE 
BIBLE. 

The Christian reader will need no apology for tlie 
digression on clironology in the preceding chapter. The 
verification of the Bible from the monuments of Egypt, 
must depend upon the determination of chronological eras. 
It should he borne m mind, however, that the confusion 
and uncertainty on this subject belong only to the first 
seventeen dynasties of Manetho's list. The empire of 
Egypt is computed by the dynasties or the houses of its 
kings. It will not surprise us that some of these dynasties 
were briefj or number but fevv^ royal names, when we con- 
sider that within a little more than half a century France 
has had two distinct Bourbon dynasties, and the dynasty of 
Napoleon, besides two republics. 

Egyptian history is divided into three grand epochs. The 
old emjAre, from Menes till the invasion of the Shepherd 
kings; the middle empire, continuing while the Hyksos 
held possession of Lower Egypt; and the neiv empire, 
dating from the expulsion of the Shepherds, • when all 
Egypt was reunited under the resplendent eighteenth dy- 
nasty of Thebes. The chronological confusion which Mr. 
Poole has so far adjusted, belongs entirely to the first two 
epochs. We naturally look to the monuments of Egypt for 
correspondences more or less full, with the brief allusions to 
Egypt in Sacred Writ. Such correspondences are chiefly 



CORRESPONDENCES WITH THE BIBLE. 183 

found in the manners and customs of the people as detailed 
upon the tombs, to be described in a subsequent chapter. 
But there are occasional correspondences in the monuments 
themselves, too important to be overlooked. It is com- 
monly supposed that Abraham and Joseph were in Egypt 
under the Shepherd dynasties. A striking monumental 
confirmation of the Bible in the age of Joseph, is found at 
Heliopolis, — the On of the Scriptures. Of this I shall 
speak particularly in another place. Sir Gardner Wilkin- 
son makes Joseph contemporary with Osirtasen, or Seserta- 
sen I. ; but Mr. Poole makes this monarch a colleague of 
Amenemha IL, and contemporary with Abraham, 

From the expulsion of the Shepherds, the current of his- 
tory flows smoothly on. Amosis, a Theban, recovered 
Lower Egypt from the Shepherds, and united the whole 
country under one empire. He was probably the Pharaoh 
"v/ho knew not Joseph;" and as a conqueror from the 
south, he would naturally seek to strengthen his hold upon 
the north, by reducing the bulk of its population to sla- 
very. With him began a new era, the eighteenth dy- 
nasty, — the golden age of Egyptian history. 

The third of this dynasty, Thothmes III., was in all prob- 
ability the Pharaoh of the Exodus. There are evidences 
from- the sculptures connected with his name, and from his 
stamp on the bricks of some ruins at Thebes, that this Pha- 
raoh was an extensive builder of temples, monuments, and 
public works, which accords with the representation in the 
Scriptures of his exacting of the Israelites such severe 
labors in the making of brick. Indeed, the process of 
making brick from clay under the lash of overseers, is 
among the subjects sculptured on a tomb built during his 
reign. 

The valley of the Mle is full of his monuments. A large 
section of the temple at Karnac was built by him. A fallen 



184 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

obelisk lying in the third area of the temple, bears his 
inscription and his portrait, of wliich I have a copy taken 
on paper. I have also an unburnt brick with a part of his 
royal stamp upon it. More perfect specimens of this may 
be seen in Dr. Abbott's museum. It comports with the 
Bible narrative that a Pharaoh, who is represented upon the 
monuments as a great builder in stone and in brick, should 
have compelled his subjects to make brick, wearily and 
under the lash, for the building of cities. 

But the most direct and remarkable conjSrmation of the 
Scriptures is found in the monumental history of SesoncMs, 
or Shishak, which is sculptured on the outer wall of the 
grand hail of Karnac. We read in the twelfth chapter of the 
Second Book of Chronicles, that "in the fifth year of King 
Eehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jeru- 
salem, — because they had transgressed against the Lord, — 
with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen ; 
and the people were without number that came with him out 
of Egypt ; and he took the fenced cities which pertained to 

Judah^ and came, to Jerusalem So Shishak, king of 

Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treas- 
ures of the king's house." Now, among the sculptures on 
the walls of the temple of Karnac, are some pertaining to 
the reign of Sheshonk I., who reigned from B.C. 980 to 
B. c. 950, which represent the captives taken by She- 
shonk in his expedition against Jerusalem, and also "the 
names of the captive towns and districts " taken in the same 
expedition. .Among these names,^ Champollion deciphered 
that of " the kingdom of Judah^'' and also such familiar 
names as Taanach, Bethshan, Lehi, Megiddo, Hebron — 
all cities of Palestine — and also the valley of Hinnom 
and the great place, or Jerusalem. And here — what erery 
one may read — .are Jewish captives, their physiognomy 
as marked in Xh^^ sculpture as that of any tenant of the 



CORRESPONDENCES WITH THE BIBLE. 185 

■Jews quarter in Frankfort on the Maine, or of Chatham 
street in New York, — their hands bound together, their 
ears nailed to the executioner's pillar, their eyes uplifted in 
agony and terror, as the sword is about to descend upon 
their heads. We need no Hebrew chronicle to tell us that 
this Egyptian monarch who here immolates Jewish cap- 
tives before his divinity, has returned flushed with victory 
and spoil from the land of Judah. Here, indeed, may we 
read " sermons in stones." 

It was either in the earlier part of the reign of this 
monarch or in that of his predecessor, that Solomon made 
his " affinity " or alliance with Egypt, which was consum- 
mated by his marriage with the daughter of the reigning 
" Pharaoh," who seems to have been his favorite wife. As 
the Egyptian dynasty of that era was still from Thebes, — 
as it had been from the days of Moses, — there is no doubt 
that the wise and powerful king of Israel, whose reign of 
forty years made Jerusalem resplendent in all the earth, 
sustained by marriage the relation of a son to one of the 
mummied tenants of these sculptured tombs. Hence it was 
that the commercial fleet of Solomon, manned by the seamen 
of Tyre, swept with safety the Eed Sea, then the highway 
of commerce between Egypt, Arabia, and the East, and 
brought to him " the gold of Ophir " to swell the magnifi- 
cence of his capital. But this affinity was short-lived ; for 
before the death of Solomon, Egypt became the refuge of 
Hadad the Edomite, an enemy of Solomon, who "found 
great favor in the sight of Pharaoh," and who married the 
sister of Taphenes, his queen ; and also the refuge of Jero- 
boam, whom Solomon sought to kill, that he might not wrest 
the kingdom from his own son. The same temple that 
records the name of the ally and the father-in-law of 
Solomon, records also the name of the conqueror of his son 
Rehoboam, and from its hieroglyphics, preserved for almost 
16^ 



186 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

three tliousaud years, bears witness to tlie fidelity of tlie 
sacred historian. 

Other sculptures here represent the wars of the Egyp- 
tians with various Asiatic nations, and some of these 
doubtless might be harmonized with the allusions to such 
wars in the Old Testament, as, for example, in 2 Chronicles 
XXXV. 20. 

From the age of Shishak we mark the decline of Egypt 
until the Persian invasion: then followed the invasions 
of the Greeks and the Eomans, and after, those of the 
Saracens and the Turks ; with other intermediate invasions 
from Ethiopia and from the desert, till Egypt has become 
" the basest of the kingdoms ; " — a mere dependency of a 
distant sovereign, without a prince of her own. Nearly 
every one of those invasions has left its distinct traces upon 
the architecture of Thebes ; so that the remark of Isaac 
Taylor respecting the walls of Jerusalem may be applied 
with equal truth to Thebes, that here are found strata in 
architecture, the leisurely deposits of the successive military 
inundations that have swept over the land. 

It has been questioned whether there is any direct allu- 
sion to Thebes in the Old Testament. Yet it would be 
strange if this great capital, " which could furnish twenty 
thousand armed chariots from its vicinity," which was for 
centuries the emporium of the lucrative trade of Arabia 
and of Ethiopia, which gathered to itself the wealth and the 
luxury of the known world, and whose magnificence was 
characterized by the epithet given to it by Homer nine 
hundred years before the Christian era — " Thebes of the 
Hundred Gates " — which, whether understood of the gates 
of the city wall or of the gates of its numerous temples, is 
equally indicative of wealth and power, — it would be 
strange if such a city were omitted in the frequent refer- 
ences of the writers of the Old Testament to the cities of 



/ CORRESPONDENCES WITH THE BIBLE. 187 

Egypt that constituted the strength and glory of the land. 
Of the thirteen cities of Egypt mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, eight of which are enumerated by Ezekiel in the 
thirtieth chapter of his prophecy, the sites of all, or nearly 
all, can be identified, with the exception of " No," which 
seems to have been the most important. The city is 
referred to also by Jeremiah (chap. xlvi. 25), and by 
Nahum iii. 8. In the margin it is called " Amun No" 

Upon this name Sir Gardner Wilkinson remarks, " This 
passage from Nahum is very interesting. ' Art thou better 
than populous No, that was situate among the waters, that 
had the waters round about it ; whose rampart was the sea, 
and her wall was from the sea ? Ethiopia and Egypt were 
her strength ; Put and Lubin were thy helpers.' The word 
larim, ' the rivers,' is the Hebrew plural of the Egyptian 
word iaro, ' river,' applied to the Nile. The word sea is, 
in the Hebrew, water or waters, and does not apply ex- 
clusively to the sea. 'Populous No' should be No or 
Na-Amun, taken from the Egyptian HI N A M V N, or 
AMO VN-HI, 'the abode of Amun,' or Diospolis."* 

Amun, the Egyptian Jupiter, was the chief deity wor- 
shipped at Thebes ; and if we suppose Thebes to have stood 
for all Egypt, as Jerusalem sometimes stands for the land 
of Palestine, Rome for the Empire, Athens for Greece, 
Paris for France, then the description of Nahum well ap- 
plies to it. The prophet seems to have taken the capital for 
the country when he speaks of Ethiopia and Egypt as the 
strength of Amun-No, and adds that it was " infinite ; " and 
so Jeremiah seems to use interchangeably the names No, 
Pharaoh, and Egypt, to denote the same power. Here was 
a city of vast wealth and power, from which probably Solo- 
mon received the horses, and the chariots, and the linen, 

* Ancient Egytians, vol. 1, p. 12. 



188 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

that went to make up his wealth, and this city was included 
in the fearful threatenings of later prophets against Egypt. 
The ruins of Thebes stand as a comment upon those prophe- 
cies no less mournful than the utter desolation that marks 
the site of Noph. 

It was predicted that No should be " cut off" and " rent 
asunder," that Egypt should go into captivity, and that it 
should ever after be " the basest of the kingdoms ; " that it 
should no more exalt itself above the .nations nor rule over 
them, and that it should no more have a prince or dynasty 
of its own, but should be subject to foreign sway (see Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). Moreover, this destruction was 
foretold as coming from the east and from the north, from 
the nations that bordered upon the Euphrates, as well as 
from intestine wars. Now the monumental history of 
Egypt teaches us that the dynasty of Diospolitans, or 
Thebans, which had stood for upwards of seven hundred 
years, was superseded first by a king from Lower Egypt, 
then by Ethiopian invaders, then again by the Saites from 
Lower Egypt, denoting a state of internal commotion, and 
this mostly after the time of Isaiah ; and also that within 
fifty years from the date of Ezekiel's prediction and sev- 
enty-five years after the captivity of Jehoiakim in Egypt, 
Camhyses conquered Egypt, and established a dynasty of 
Persian monarchs that lasted for a hundred years. The 
traces of his invasion may still be seen at Thebes in the 
partial destruction of some of its proudest monuments. I 
have already referred to the overthrow of the statue of 
Rameses the Great in front of the Memnonium, — the most 
stupendous statue ever reared, felled and broken by his 
revengeful arm. 

Daniel saw in his vision four great monarchies, which in 
succession overspread the earth, and then were destroyed. 
Each of these monarchies conquered Egypt, and three of 



CORRESPONDENCES WITH THE BIBLE. 189 

them — tlie Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman — 
here established their own dynasties of kings or viceroys. 
The same temples and monuments that record the names of 
the Egyptian Pharaohs, record the names of Cambyses, 
Darius, Xerxes, and other Persian kings, and the names of 
the Ptolemies, who administered the government of Egypt 
under the Macedonian and the Poman empires ; so that at 
Thebes, as in one vast sepulchre, lie buried all the empires 
of the world from the migration of Mizraim to the fall of 
Rome. Each hath apart its own sepulchre, and the place 
of some no man knoweth to this day ; but here too all lie 
entombed together. I find here the name of Rome written 
upon the sepulchre of thrice vanquished Egypt, and yet I 
have already looked upon the grave of Rome, that then 
seemed covered with the mould of ages. Standing here 
amid the Hades of kings and empires, as one by one goes 
down into the pit, — the conqueror and the conquered to 
one common grave, — I can realize that terrible imagery of 
the prophets — "I made the nations to shake at the sound 
of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that 

descend into the pit They also went down into hell 

with him to them that be slain with the sword ; and they 
that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst 

of the heathen Hell from beneath is moved for thee 

to meet thee at thy coming ; it stirreth up the dead for thee, 
even all the chief ones of the earth ; it hath raised up from 
their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall 
speak and say to thee. Art thou also become weak as we ? 
art thou become like to us ? Thy pomp is brought down to 
the grave, and the noise of thy viols ; the worm is spread 
under thee, and the worms cover thee." (Ezek. xxxi. 16, 
17, and Isaiah xiv. 9-12.) 



CHAPTER XXV. 

KECENT DISCOVERIES AT THEBES MEMORIALS OP 

EARLY CHRISTIANITY. 

Former visitor^ at Tliebes will remember fnat, after 
passing tlie great colonnade of Amunopli in the temple of 
Luxor, and the covered portico of thirty-two columns, they 
crawled through an aperture near the south-western angle 
of the old wall, under the rubbish of Arab hovels, and en- 
tered by one or two chambers partially excavated, into a 
liall supported by four columns, vv^hose walls were adorned 
with curious sculptures in a tolerable state of preservation. 
Adjacent to this Vv^as what is termed the " sanctuary," in Sir 
Gardner Wilkinson's Handbook. This part of the temple 
has recently been more thoroughly excavated and explored, 
so that instead of crawling throngh a hole in the v/all, the 
visitor now enters upon the level of the old floor, twenty 
feet below that aperture. From the southern side of the 
temple — towards the old Roman quay — he first enters a 
spacious hall, suj)ported by twelve columns, each upwards 
of forty feet in height. The sculptures of this hall are 
much defaced, but they bear marks of painting, and possi- 
bly of gilding ; these, however, are more apparent upon the 
broken columns of the small roofless area that lies yet 
south of this covered hall. In the centre of this hall is a 
lofty sculptured gateway on the northern side, which having 
once been walled up with fragments of sculptured stone, is 
now again partly opened, and leads into a main passage, 



RECENT DISCOVERIES AT THEBES. 191 

with two lateral passages which surround the area, and unite 
at the opposite extremity, where is a corresponding gateway, 
also walled up, through which a broken entrance leads to 
another chamber, from which an aperture, now some fifteen 
feet from the floor, still leads to the before-mentioned hall, 
with four columns. This, however, can be reached only 
with a ladder, which the government has not yet provided ; 
but there are indications of a doorvfay leading down, which 
by another year will be fully opened. The sculptures in these 
halls and chambers are in a remarkably good state of pres- 
ervation ; some of the smaller subjects in the lateral halls 
having been cut to the depth of an inch, and now being 
brought out from the debris of centuries as if fresh from the 
chisel. There are several heads, as well executed as any to 
be found in the temples or the tombs at Thebes. The sculp- 
tures relate principally to offerings to various divinitres ; but 
on the north face of the inner chamber is a representation 
of a feast, in v\^hich fish, oxen, fruits, and edibles of all sorts 
are profusely spread, and servants are in active attendance. 
Some of the smaller subjects also represent bread and fruits 
with great accuracy. At the northern extremity of the 
second chamber is another gateway, corresponding with that 
on the opposite side. This seems to indicate that the hall 
first entered may have been a portico furnishing an entrance 
from the south, from which a succession of gates communi- 
cated with the covered portico of thirty-two columns, and so 
on through the grand colonnade to the principal gateway on 
the north, that of Barneses II. This part of the temple 
having been marred by the Persians, was restored under 
Alexander. 

These excavations have been conducted under the super- 
intendence of Mons. V. G. Maunier, who holds an ap- 
pointment for artistic sketches of the monuments of Egypt, 
from Abbas Pasha, the present Viceroy. Mons. Maunier 



192 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

has taken up his abode in a suite of apartments constructed 
upon the roof of the temple, which are "artistically" 
arranged in French-oriental style; and, "when graced by 
the presence of his amiable lady, have an air of simple 
elegance, in striking contrast with the squalor of the sur- 
rounding hovels and their inhabitants. Sir Gardner Wil- 
kinson, while pursuing his researches in Egypt, in like 
manner prepared a habitation among the monuments he 
was exploring, and transferred the comforts of English life 
to the sepulchres of Egyptian kings. It is quite possible to 
construct a cool, neat, and comfortable residence within such 
precincts, and at a moderate expense. This is the proper 
course for the scholar and the artist, who would explore 
Egypt thoroughly. With a library, and his family about 
him, he can enjoy the present while investigating the past. 
Nor will he lack for society in the winter season, when hun- 
dreds of travellers visit the Upper Nile. Mr. Maunier is 
yet in the prime of life, and has come to Egypt with the 
intention, if necessary, of devoting ten years to his re- 
searches: He is an accomplished artist, and has with him 
a line apparatus for photographic pictures, by the aid of 
which he will transfer to an album w^hatever is curious and 
instructive in the remains of Thebes. Such a work should 
be in the library of every literary institution, and of every 
private gentleman who would combine valuable knowledge 
with cultivated taste. 

Mr. Maunier is not merely an artist, he is also versed in 
Egyptian antiquities, and will pursue his labors with the 
enthusiasm of a scholar. He has recently found at Kar- 
nac, a twin pair of figures, executed in the same block of 
black granite, which, if it be not a contradiction in terms, 
may be styled colossi in miniature, for with the semblance 
of all the colossal figures, they have a stature of only two 
and a half feet. They are in perfect order, and the hiero- 



KECENT DISCOVERIES AT THEBES. 193 

gljphics sliow them to have been a priest and priestess of 
the era of Joseph. If Mr. Maunier is correct in his read- 
ing, these are among the oldest monuments of Thebes, older 
than the colossal hawk removed by Lepsius, a few years 
since, from the adytum of the section of the Karnac temple 
built by Thothmes III., the contemporary of Moses. There 
is no doubt, however, that Osirtasen I., the contemporary of 
Joseph, built the oldest portion of the great temple which 
can now be identified. The black granite from which these 
statues were hewn, is as hard and as smooth as polished 
iron. 

But the most interesting discovery that Mons. Maunier has 
made, relates to the fourth century of the Christian era. It 
is well known, that under the lower empire, and down to 
the time of the Arab invasion, the Christians had a very large 
church at Medeenet Haboo, on the western bank of Thebes, 
the ruins of which are still found within the principal area 
of the temple in that quarter. Some are of opinion that 
Thebes was at that time the site of a Greek bishop's see. 
Traces of the Christian ascendency may be seen at Karnac, 
in the columnar edifice of Thothmes III., where the sign 
of the cross, and the figures of Christ and of one of the 
apostles frescoed upon a stucco laid over the ancient sculp- 
tures, indicate that this also was appropriated as a place of 
Christian worship. The excavations on the northern face 
of the section of the temple of Luxor, already referred to, 
have brought to hght a large fresco of the age of Constan- 
tino. The northern gateway, which, like the two behind it, 
has been walled up with fragments of ancient masonry, 
upon its outer face is converted into an arched recess, before 
which stand two small columns of sandstone, whose capi- 
tals bear a rude resemblance to the Corinthian order. This 
recess, with the wall on either side, and the angle of the 
wall toward the north-east, making a surface of about fifty 
17 



194 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

feet by fifteen, is covered with frescoes of the size of life, 
representing St. George (the patron saint of the Copts) and 
the dragon, the apostles, and other objects not fuUj identic 
fied. Some of the paintings retain considerable freshness 
of color, while others are much defaced. The stucco was 
laid over the original sculptures upon the wall of the 
temple, which are still visible where this plaster has been 
broken. By this method the Christians sought to conceal 
these wherever they did not deface them, and they have 
thus unwittingly preserved some of the choicest specimens 
of the old Egyptian art. Here, then, within the area of an 
old heathen temple, which dates back more than three 
thousand years, and whose founder was " the supposed 
Memnon of the vocal statue," was fashioned a Christian 
church, when, after the persecutions that continued with so 
nitle interruption from Nero to Diocletian, the conversion 
of Constantino exalted Christianity above the old idolatries, 
as the established religion of the Roman Empire, of which 
Egypt was then an api^endage. Before the age of Constan- 
tino the Christians of Egypt, though they had greatly 
multiplied since ApoUos, the eloquent disciple of Alexan- 
dria, and other " dwellers in Egypt," converted on the day 
of Pentecost, together with the noble treasurer of the 
Ethiopian queen, had first carried the Gospel to that land, 
could not have been in a political condition that would admit 
of their taking possession of the temples of the land, and 
transforming them into churches. But in the reign of Con- 
stantino this was extensively done throughout the Roman 
empire ; and under Theodosius, the temples of the heathen 
were even violently destroyed by imperial command. After 
his reign, however, the various causes that led to the disso- 
lution of the Roman enipire, already dismembered, reduced 
the political power of Christianity, until it v/as swept away 
before the Arab invasion and the frenzied zeal of the' 



MEMORIALS OF EAKLY CHRISTIANITY. 195 

followers of Islam. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude, 
that the fresco at Luxor belongs to the fourth century 
of the Christian era, which began with Constantino and 
closed with Theodosius. 

As a painting, this fresco has no great merit, though it is 
fully equal to certain frescoes I wot of in pulpit recesses in 
New York churches, and cjuite as much in keeping with the 
place. But as a monument of early Christianity it is most 
interesting, and 'especially as showing Jioiv early Christianity, 
under the patronage of emperors and bishops, was perverted 
from its original simplicity. St. George and the dragon 
was no great improvement upon Amun, the presiding 
divinity of this temple, before it was converted into a 
church. Whether viewed in an artistic, a philosophical, or 
a religious point of view, I cannot see wherein a picture of 
a saint on a red horse, with a troop of retainers, thrusting 
his lance into the jaws of a green dragon, .is more effective 
than a colossal sculpture of a divinity, upon whom the 
serpent waits, as the symbol of wisdom and of eternity. 
After all, such a Christianity is but heathenism plastered 
and painted over at the sacrifice of grandeur and of 
power. 

After the plaster and the paint, came the mud of the 
Nile, and the sand-dust of the mountains, and covered both 
teitiple and church, while the rude Arab built his hovel 
upon the buried roof, and squatted cross-legged, smoking his 
pipe over the perished grandeur of four empires — Egypt, 
Persia, Greece, and Eome — and bowed his head to the 
prophet upon the grave alike of pagan and of Christian 
idolatry. Now, at length, the hovels are to be swept away 
by the pickaxe and basket of the explorer, and the temple 
is to be reopened in its original proportions. "When these 
excavations shall have been completed, the ruins at Luxor 
will be second only to those of Karnac, presenting a con- 



196 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tinuous line of gateways, corridors, areas, and temples 
eight hundred feet in length by from one hundred to two 
hundred feet in breadth, and containing some of the best 
specimens of the old Egyptian sculpture. If, then, the old 
avenue to Karnac shall be restored, and the buried frag- 
ments of sphinxes, obelisks, and colossi, made to line as of 
old this dromos of more than a mile in length, reaching from 
the massive gateway of Eameses II. at Luxor to the no 
less majestic, though isolated gateway, of Ptolemy Euer- 
getes at Karnac, Thebes in her ruin will exhibit a wonder 
such as the world has not seen since her fall. 

It is to be hoped that Mons. Maunier will be contmued 
in his office till this great work is accomplished. Just now, 
however, all labor is suspended in consequence of the new 
conscription for the army, for fear of which the laborers 
have deserted their homes and have fled to the mountains, 
where they are hunted by soldiers who, a few years since, 
doubtless themselves fled from a similar conscription. What 
a comment is this upon a government, which with one 
hand compels Labor for a pittance to disentomb the past, 
and wdth the other drives Labor to bury itself in the rocks, 
where kings built their sepulchres. Labor groaning under 
Despotism built those mighty monuments ; Labor groaning 
under Despotism digs out their ruins ; Labor groaning under 
Despotism seeks a momentary refuge from Egypt's petty 
tyrant, among the tombs of Egypt's most resplendent 
dynasty. — "It shall be the basest op the king- 
doms." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE TOMBS OF THEBES MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE 

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 

The tomb, in an American cemetery, is always unin- 
viting ; — dark, damp, drear, an arched vault under ground ; 
or if above ground, overgrown with moss and trickling with 
moisture — still sombre and drear. But the tombs of the. 
Egyptians were rather temples or palaces for the repose of 
the dead — not dug under ground, but hewn from the soHd 
rock in mountains that have no surface of soil, but that 
bleach evermore under an unclouded sun. These mountain 
catacombs appear most striking in the neighborhood of 
Thebes. 

If the founders of Thebes showed their forecast in select- 
ing for its site a plain to which the Nile brought its vast 
tribute of alluvium from the mountains of Ethiopia, and its 
still greater tribute of commercial wealth from the empires 
of the south, and to which as a natural depot the caravans 
from the Red Sea brought the treasures of Arabia, of Per- 
sia, and of the Indies, they showed no less a sense of the 
sublime and the beautiful in nature in choosing a plain, 
embosomed within such mountains as on either hand pro- 
tect this from the devouring desert. Mountains there are, 
all along the valley of the Upper Nile. But nowhere do 
they tower into peaks and break into spurs with minor val- 
leys, as they do here. Still here, as throughout the valley, 
the mountains are utterly bare of vegetation, and glare with 
. • 17* ^ 



198 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

the drifted sand from the desert reflecting the burning sun. 
At Thebes the Arabian chain runs first south-easterly, then 
makes a bold sweep toward the west, while the Lybian 
chain advances its columns along the western bank of the 
river, confronting those of the opposite side, and together 
with these forming a huge circular basin. These moun- 
tains abound in petrified shells, and are throughout of a yel- 
lowish limestone. 

But their main interest does not lie in their picturesque 
collocation, nor in their geological structure. These were 
the burial-places of the kings, and queens, and priests of 
Egypt, and of her private men of wealth. Such tombs are 
found everywhere in the mountains along the Nile, but 
nowhere in such profuse grandeur as at Thebes, or coupled 
with such illustrious names. Thebes is the grave of empires. 
We have seen in succession all the great powders of the old 
world first victorious, then decaying, then dying upon its 
soil. The sepulchre of Egypt entombs also Persia, Greece, 
and Rome. 

But not only are all empires buried at Thebes — a world 
is buried here also. It is computed that from eight to ten 
millions of human mummies \vcre deposited in the cata- 
combs of this one city; a number four or five times as 
great as the whole present population of Egypt, and equal 
to one hundredth part of the present population of the 
globe. As I stood upon the Lybian mountains that over- 
look the plain of Thebes, — which the wealth, and power, 
and the religious sentiment of generations long since de- 
parted had perforated for miles, and had adorned with 
wondrous art for their place of sepulture, — and with 
buried millions under my feet, and the desecrated tombs 
of kings on every hand, looked forth over the plain where 
once they dwelt in conscious power, and in its whole cir- 
cumference of fifty miles saw only a few scattered villages 



THE TOMBS OP THEBES. • 199 

of beggarly Arabs, and over the vast area of the ancient 
city saw only the four or five half-buried and shattered 
temples that mark its site, I felt the meaning of those 
words. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory op 

MAN AS THE FLOWER OF GRASS. 

In one sense, the Egyptians made preparation for death 
the great business of life. From the day of his accession 
to the throne, the monarch began to prepare his sepulchre ; 
and the extent of the excavation for his palace-tomb, and 
also the extent and the style of its decorations, would com- 
monly be in proportion to the duration of his reign ; for in 
lieu of a written history, he would cause the leading actions 
and events of his life to be painted or sculptured upon the 
walls of the sepulchre that was to entomb his remains. In 
like manner, the priest would cause his tomb to be illustrated 
with the religious ceremonies in which he was accustomed 
to participate, and the private man of wealth would adorn 
his tomb with scenes from domestic life, — the arts, manners, 
and customs of his times. Thus it comes to pass, that on 
the walls of these tombs we trace the life of the old Egyp- 
tians that is nowhere written in books ; and, instead of 
gloomy sepulchres of the dead, we find ourselves as it were, 
in the glowing halls of the living. 

We will enter one of these halls — that known as Bel- 
zoni's tomb, from its modern discoverer. Climbing for several 
hundred feet the face of the naked limesto.ne mountain, you 
arrive at a doorway chiselled with architecturg,l symmetry, 
and entering this you immediately descend twenty-four feet 
by a flight of steps hewn from the rock, and then go for- 
ward for about a hundred feet by a series of passages, stair- 
cases, and small chambers, all cut with mathematical pre- 
cision through the solid rock, and adorned on both sides 
with fine sculptures : next, you enter a hall supported by 
four pillars, cut true and smooth from the solid rock, and 



200 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

which, as well as the walls, are decorated with fine sculp- 
tures and painting, whose colors are yet brilliant ; then by a 
succession of passages you proceed to the grand hall twenty- 
seven feet square, which is supported by six pillars, upon 
whose sides is represented the king in the presence of vari- 
ous divinities ; from this you enter various side-chambers, 
and a vaulted saloon nineteen feet by thirty, where the 
alabaster sarcophagus of the deceased monarch was depos- 
ited. All around this room is a divan of stone, some three 
feet high by as many deep. On either side of the grand 
hall is a staircase, descending a hundred and fifty feet into 
the heart of the rock, where the work of excavation was 
left unfinished. The whole horizontal length of this ex- 
cavation is three hundred and twenty feet, and the perpen- 
dicular descent is one hundred and eighty feet. Its sculp- 
tures are very fine, and in excellent preservation. 

There were three modes of adorning the interior of an 
Egyptian tomb. One was to smooth down the face of the 
rock, and then cut the sculptures in bas-relief or in intaglio 
— as in a cameo reversed ; — another was to cover the sides 
of the tomb with stucco, and then to cut the figures upon 
this ; and the third, to paint upon the stucco. Where the 
sculptures were originally cut deep into the natural rock, 
they remain nearly perfect ; but wherever stucco was used, 
the sculptures and paintings have suffered much from the 
recklessness of Arabs and the pilfering propensities of trav- 
ellers. Their remarkable preservation is owing to the 
extreme dryness of the rock and of the climate, and to the 
fact that they were so long hidden from the destroying hand 
of man. No rain nor vegetable mould has reached them in 
the three thousand years and upwards that have elapsed 
since many of them were wrought. Belzoni's tomb is 
wrought throughout in the exactest architectural proportions, 
and with the most exquisite finish of sculpture and of paint- 




^ ^-^iA 



THE TOMBS OF THEBES. 201 

ing. The grand hall, when illuminated by torchlight or 
with blazing straw, presents an imposing spectacle. The 
cow, the lion, the serpent, the crocodile, all well drawn and 
well colored, adorn the sides of the ceiling, as symbols of 
religious sentiments, while the pillars reflect the king in the 
assembly of the gods. * 

But the most interesting chamber in this tomb, is one in 
which the sculptures are unfinished, and you see the original 
draught in red lines, corrected and improved by black lines 
traced over them, preparatory to the labor of the chisel. 
The occupant of the tomb died before his original plan was 
executed. 

Many of the tombs at Thebes contain single chambers as 
large as a common-sized village church. Some are larger than 
the largest churches in New York. The most extensive 
tomb yet opened is that of the Assaseef, a sect of the 
priesthood. This tomb contains one hall a hundred and 
three feet by seventy-six : another about sixty feet square, 
with a row of pillars on each side : then follow corridors 
and side-halls, and a long passage hewn around the rock 
and terminating in yet another hall, in which is a pit of 
immense depth, where probably the sarcophagus was de- 
posited. On entering this tomb, you go straight forward a 
distance of three hundred .and twenty feet ; its total length 
is eight hundred and sixty-two feet ; and the whole exca- 
vation is twenty-four thousand square feet, or more than 
half an acre, while " from the nature of its plan, the ground 
it occupies is an acre and a quarter." This tomb will serve 
to illustrate the wealth, the power, and the religion of an- 
cient Egypt. Vast as it is, it is not a royal sepulchre. 
Others like it were the tombs of private individuals. The 
fact that the inhabitants of Thebes and of every city that 

* See plate. 



202 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

once adorned the Nile, converted the mountains that fence 
in the river into catacombs, filled with temple-tombs exca- 
vated with so much labor and skill, and adorned with such 
profusion of painting and sculpture — even after all allow- 
ance for the cheapness of labor in ancient times — indicates 
the largeness of their resources ; while the fact that so 
much wealth was turned into this channel, shadows forth 
their belief in an existence after death, and also in the 
immortality of the body which they so carefully embalmed, 
and thought to preserve inviolate in the heart of the moun- 
tain. 

But our interest is, mainly, with the life of the old Egyp- 
tians, as we find this sketched upon these sepulchral palaces. 
One of the most interesting tombs for this study is known to 
explorers as the Harpers. In this we find a series of cham- 
bers — probably designed for the servants and chief officers 
of the owner of the tomb — each illustrating different de- 
partments of domestic life. The first is a cooking scene ; 
and from the first glance it is evident that the men who 
built these monuments were not vegetarians. Their enter- 
tainments did not open, like that of the Vegetarian Society, 
with pea soup, to be followed by sundry courses of fari- 
naceous dishes, closing with bran and saw-dust pudding. 
Here are oxen slaughtered whole : a tripod over a fire on 
which meat is roasting ; mince meat, and a hanging safe, 
with other contrivances of modern kitchens for keeping 
provisions from vermin ; — possibly they were acquainted 
with Lyon's Magnetic Powder, the flea powder of the 
East ; other cooks are kneading dough and preparing seed- 
cake. 

In another chamber we see the feast in progress ; the 
retinue of servants in waiting, and bands of musicians to 
entertain the guests. Another apartment exhibits the style 
of furniture. Here we see representations of sofas, divans, 



BEICK-MAKING. 203 

and stuffed and painted arm-chairs. Here are vases of por- 
celain ; leojDard skins, prepared for ornaments ; basins and 
ewers ; fans, and embroidered articles ; specimens of which 
are in Dr. Abbott's museum. In another are pertrayed 
agricultural employments. Here we see an inundation of 
the Nile ; the process of sowing and of reaping ; the com- 
mon fruits of the country, grapes and dates ; also birds and 
eggs. We find the same rude plow already described as in 
common use. In some tombs we learn the popular s|)orts : 
wrestling, dancing, gymnastic exercises, fishing, and the 
chase. In others are seen triumphal processions ; represent- 
ing kings and conquered nations, or religious ceremonials. 
Captives are seen beheaded, or with their right hands cut 
off. From one tomb I copied a sculpture of a negro slave 
with marked physiognomy. Slaves are frequently depicted ; 
one female slave is seen in the disagreeable act of holding a 
ewer to her mistress, who is relieving herself of a surfeit of 
food. Comical touches and caricatures are often introduced 
in these decorations. 

One of the most interesting tombs at Thebes is that of 
Rochscei^e, " the overseer of public buildings," under Thoth- 
mes III. — probably the Pharaoh of the Exodus. I have 
already spoken of this monarch as a great architect, and the 
subjects represented on the walls of this tomb illustrate this 
fact. It was appropriate that the tomb of his master-builder 
should be illustrated by such subjects. Here the monarch 
is seen presenting obelisks to the divinity, and these obe- 
lisks are found at this day in the temple of Karnac. Here, 
too, is depicted the whole process of hrichmahing — the slaves 
of the king shaping the mud of the Isile into crude brick, 
just as the fellahs are seen doing at this day. Taskmasters 
with whips are stationed at intervals among the workmen, a 
pictorial representation of the scenes that daily occurred 
among the Israelites in their cruel bondage. The picture is 



204 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

SO far defaced that the features of the workmen cannot be 
distinguished ; but the scene itself, depicted in this tomb, is 
a suggestive confirmation of the narrative in Exodus. The 
characteristic scenes of the era are building scenes ; and in 
the taskmaster's tomb slaves are seen making brick under 
the lash. 

The incidental confirmations of the Bible from the tombs 
of Egypt, are numerous and striking. The curious reader 
will find many of these collected in Hengstenberg's Egypt 
and the Books of Moses, and in Osborne's Egypt, her Testi- 
mony to the Truth. I can barely allude to them here. 

The Bible alludes to Egypt only incidentally, but always 
in terms that indicate in that country a high state of wealth, 
power, and civilization in the time of Joseph. Some of its 
allusions also indicate a state of society, and a religious be- 
lief, dififering from other nations. All these allusions are 
confirmed by coeval monuments, showing that the writer of 
the Pentateuch must have been in Egypt, and that he wrote 
of it as a familiar country. For example : — 

Joseph was bought as a slave. 

Slaves are depicted on the oldest monuments. 

Joseph was exalted to be steward. 

The steward, with his books, is represented on the tombs 
over every great household. 

Joseph used a cup in divining. 

Divining with a cup is pictured on the tombs. 

Pharaoh drCamed of kine from the river. 

The cow and the river are symbols of plenty. 

Pharaoh gave Joseph a gold chain upon his neck. 

This ornament is seen in the pictures of princes, and gold 
ornaments of ancient Egyptian manufacture are to be seen 
in Abbott's museum. 

Joseph built storehouses for grain. 

Pictures of granaries are found in coeval tombs. 



BIBLE CUSTOMS. 205 

Joseph's brethren sat at meat. 

In the pictures of feasts, in the tombs, the guests are seen 
sitting instead of rechning. 

Jacob was embahned and was buried with great mourning. 

The Egyptians embalmed their dead, and long funeral 
processions are found upon the tombs. 

The Israelites made bricks with straw. 

Chopped straw is found in ancient bricks. 

Moses was put in an ark of papyrus and bitumen. 

These were in common use for mummy cases. 

The daughter of Pharaoh came to bathe. 

There is on a tomb a picture of a female bathing, attended 
by four maids. Such public exposure of women is not ori- 
ental, but Egyptian. 

The Israelites were pursued with chariots. 

Every battle scene abounds in. chariots of war. 

Miriam rejoiced with timbrels. 

Timbrels and harps were Egyptian instruments of music. 

In erecting the tabernacle in the wilderness, the Israelites 
were called upon to work in precious stones ; in refining and 
working metals ; in carving wood and preparing leather ; in 
spinning, weaving, embroidery, and the preparation of oils. 
These arts they must have learned in Egypt ; and all these 
arts are represented upon contemporaneous history. Not 
more certainly do the physical features of Palestine testify 
that the Bible was mainly written in that country, than do 
the tombs of Egypt witness that the author of the Penta- 
teuch was skilled in all the arts and manners of the Egyp- 
tians. 

In several of the tombs are representations of mechanic 
arts, such as those of the carpenter, the currier, the boat- 
builder, — the boat having the same form and managed in 
the same way as the boats now seen on the Nile, — the 
maker of chariots, the worker in metals, the manufacturer 
18 



206 . EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of musical instruments, the linen weaver, and tlie ^^55- 
blower. This last assures us that 'Jhe antiquity of glass 
making dates far back of the accidental melting of silicious 
sand at the mouth of the Belus. Some fine specimens of 
ancient Egyptian glass are contained in Dr. Abbott's mu- 
seum. I have in my o-\vii possession a tolerable specimen 
of its texture and quality. All the arts alluded to by Isaiah 
as practised in Egypt, are here sketched upon the tombs. 

The religious belief of the Egyptians, and especially their 
faith in immortality, is portrayed by symbols on the walls of 
these tombs. This topic must be reserved for another 
chapter ; but I cannot omit to mention here a pictorial repre- 
sentation of human life, beginning with birth and passing 
through all the periods of life, then terminating in a funeral 
procession, where the human-headed and winged serpent is 
conspicuous, and the mummied corpse is borne in a boat 
supported by sphinxes. Beyond the sarcophagus is seen 
that exquisite symbol of immortality, a child in a winged 
globe. This is a pictorial book of the dead, representing the 
gradual passage of the deceased to the realms of light. 

It is impossible, within the present limits, to enumerate 
even in the way of a catalogue, all the subjects detailed 
upon the tombs at Thebes. The curious reader will find 
numerous copies in the splendid work of Sir Gardner Wil- 
kinson on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyp- 
tians. But to one upon the ground, defaced as the paintings 
and sculptures now are by the vandalism of Arabs and of 
antiquaries, it seems, as he goes from tomb to tomb, that he 
is visiting the picture galleries, the manufactories, and the 
private houses of the old Egyptians, and mingling famil- 
iarly in their every-day scenes. It is not death, but life, one 
here beholds ; or, rather, as at Pompeii, life exhumed from 
the chambers of the dead. In the eloquent language of 
Dr. (now Cardinal) Wiseman, " When, after so many ages 



THE ARTS IX EGYPT. 207 

of darkness and uncertainty, we see the lost history of this 
people revive, and take its stand beside that of other an- 
cient empires ; Tvhen we read the inscriptions of its kings, 
recording their mighty exploits and regal qualities, and 
gaze upon their monuments, with the full understanding of 
the events which they commemorate, the impression is 
scarcely less striking to an enlightened mind, than what the 
traveller would feel, if, when silently pacing the catacombs 
at Thebes, he should see those corpses, v^^hich the embalm- 
er's skill has for so many ages rescued from decay, on a 
sudden burst their cerements, and start resuscitated from 
their niches." * 

These old Egyptians, whose tombs and temples are now 
open to our inspection, and whose social, commercial, relig- 
ious, and political history is written ujDon the imperishable 
rock, where all may read it — these ancients, over whom we 
of this nineteenth century are wont to boast in all the 
"improvements" and the material comforts of life, had 
wealth beyond all computation ; commerce in all the " pre- 
cious things " of Arabia, of Persia, and the Indies, in gold, 
and jewels, and spices, and silks, and aromatics ; manufac- 
tures of fine linen and embroidered work, of vases of porce- 
lain and pottery, of oil, of chariots, of baskets and wicker- 
work, of glass ornaments and utensils, and of many other 
articles of comfort and of luxury ; husbandry that made 
Egypt the granary of the world, and once and again the 
support of neighboring nations in time of famine ; civiliza- 
tion that well supplied the comforts of domestic life, that 
furnished their houses with chairs, sofas, and couches for 
their parlors, as well as with copper utensils, caldrons, tri- 
pods, mortars, pallets, ovens for their kitchens; mechanic 
arts to fabricate various and formidable weapons of war, 

* Science and Eeligion, vol. ii. p. 54. 



208 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

and to erect buildings and monuments that would now ex- 
haust the combined strength and treasures of all the nations 
of Europe ; an art that could excavate from the quarry a 
block of sienite weighing nearly nine hundred tons, that 
could transport it more than a hundred miles, — the distance 
of the nearest quarry, — and that could erect this block, 
when carved into a statue, upon a pedestal prepared for it 
at the gateway of a temple whose porch was lined with 
similar, though smaller figures ; an art that could arrange in 
perfect order a double row of fourteen pillars, each upward 
of seventy feet high by thirty-six in circumference, and 
raise to the top of these stones thirty feet in length by six 
feet in breadth, and the same in thickness, and then dispose 
about this central avenue other avenues formed by a hun- 
dred and twenty-two majestic pillars, in like manner cajDped 
with gigantic stones, until the roofed temple covered an acre 
and a half, and with its surroundings ten times that surface, 
and this centuries before Solomon built the inferior temple 
at Jerusalem ; an art, in short, that could build Karnac and 
the pyramids : fine arts also ; sculpture, which if it be less 
delicate than that of Greece, is more grand and spirited, 
which at times unites beauty with grandeur, but which in 
majesty of conception is rivalled only by the contemporary 
sculptures of Nineveh ; painting, which after four thousand 
years retains the freshness of its colors ; music, which in- 
vented both wind and stringed instruments ; mathematical 
science, that could arrange with precision and skill all archi- 
tectural lines and forms ; astronomical science, that decorated 
the ceilings of temples with celestial signs ; geological sci- 
ence, so far as this relates to the selection of difterent quali- 
ties of stone for different qualities of soil ; philosophy, that 
evolved the great idea of a judgment and a future state and 
the soul's immortality, though in the form of metempsycho- 
sis, or the transmigration of souls, a philosophy that Moses 



MANNEKS AND CUSTOMS. 209 

and Plato studied, and that gave wisdom to tlie world ; and 
all these under the guardianship of a physical force that 
was for centuries victorious upon every field, that subdued 
Ethiopia and Judea, and swept Syria to the Euphrates, and 
that was shielded at home upon three sides by the moun- 
tains and the desert, and on the fourth side by the sea. And 
yet with all its wealth, and commerce, and manufactures, 
and agriculture, and civilization, and art, and science, and 
philosophy, and material force, and natural barriers, Egypt 
has perished, utterly and for ever perished. I stand upon 
its grave, upon the grave of a city that had ceased to be a 
thousand years before New York was settled, and standing 
here I see and know that the Egypt that once was can know 
no resurrection. The mighty conquerors of Egypt, too, have 
perished. The Persian empire, the Macedonian, the Roman, 
are fallen to rise no more. We must not despise these as 
empires of mere brute force. They had learning and art 
as well as arms. We know little in advance of them, 
except what we have learned through the Gospel. To that 
America owes every thing. And only by adhering to the 
principles of the gospel of Christ, can the young Republic 
of the West avoid the fate of older nations. 



18 



CHAPTEH XXVII. 

GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS — DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 

Herodotus describes the Egyptians as " very religious, 
surpassing all men in the honors they pay to the gods." 
And this description is verified by the prominence given to 
religious subjects in the sculptures that crowd their temples 
and tombs. The ancient Egyptians had three principal 
orders of gods, and several subordinate triads in each. Yet 
they seem originally fo have believed in the unity of God, 
conceiving of Amun Ke, the king of gods, a concealed God, 
the creative principle, who holds in his hands all life and 
power. This proper Divinity is nowhere represented in 
the sculptures, but his attributes were also deified, and 
these are set forth under various symbols. In general, " the 
figures of the gods were deified attributes indicative of the 
intellect, power, goodness, might, and other qualities of the 
eternal Being. 

" Each form was one of his attributes ; in the same man- 
ner as our expressions, ' the Creator,' ' the Omniscient,' ' the 
Almighty,' or any other title, indicate one and the same 
Being; and hence arose the distinction between the great 
gods, and those of an inferior grade, which were physical 
objects, as the sun and moon, or abstract notions of various 
kinds, as ' valor,' ^ strength,' ' intellectual gifts,' and the like, 
personified under different forms Upon this princi- 
ple,, it is probable that gods were made of the virtues, the 
senses, and, in short, every abstract idea which had reference 



GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 211 

to the Deity, or man ; and we may therefore expect to find, 
in this catalogue, mtellect, might, wisdom, creative power, 
the generative and productive principles, thought, will, 
goodness, mercy, compassion, divine vengeance, prudence, 
temperance, fortitude, fate, love, hope, charity, joy, time, 
space, infinity, as well as sleep, harmony, and even divisions 
of time, as the year, month, day, and hours, and an innumer- 
able host of abstract notions. 

"There were also innumerable physical deities in the 
Egyptian Pantheon, as earth, heaven, the sun and moon, 
and others revered for the benefits they conferred on man." * 

The representation of a tiiad of divinities, so common in 
the sculptures, is one of the most curious and suggestive 
features of their system. 

The metaphysical doctrine of the superessential Deity was 
held by the priests as a sacred mystery. But the common 
people were left to the most frivolous and degrading super- 
stitions, and worshipped the symbols of the divine attributes 
as themselves gods. Partly for sanatory reasons, and 
partly with a view to preserve their species, several animals 
and plants were set apart as sacred. These varied in dif- 
ferent districts. Thus as we have seen the crocodile was 
worshipped in one nome, and hunted as an enemy in 
another. The wolf, the dog, the ram, a sea fish, a river fish, 
leeks and onions, all in their turn were sacred objects. The 
idolatry of the masses was as gross as the mysteries of the 
priesthood were refined. They worshipped the graven 
images upon the temple, instead of the divinity enshrined 
within it. 

From the representations upon the temples and the 
tombs, it is evident that the religious rites of the Egyptians 
were conducted with great pomp and ceremony, and that 

* Wilkinson, vol. iv. p. 172. 



212 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

the priesthood possessed great dignity and power. Some 
of these representations also evince a deep religious senti- 
ment, a sense of accountabilitj and of the future life. The 
judgment scene, which often occurs, is highly impressive. 
In particular I was struck with one in the side adytum of a 
small Dayr on the west bank of Thebes. The deceased, in 
a reverent attitude, approaches tne throne of judgment, 
between the figures of Justice and Truth. His actions are 
weighed in a balance with the ostrich feather of Truth, while 
a divine scribe notes down the result, and a row of assess- 
ors look on from above. The entrance to the abode of the 
gods is guarded by Cerberus. 

Bunsen's account of a book of judgment corresponds 
with this picture. It is styled " The Book of Deliverance 
in the Hall of the twofold Justice. This title indicates, ac- 
cording to Lepsius, Justice, distributor of reward and pun- 
ishment. The contents, are the divine judgment on the 
deceased. Forty-two gods, (the number composing the 
earthly tribunal of the dead,) occupy the judgment-seat. 
Osiris, as their president, bears on his breast the small tab- 
let of chief judge, containing, as we see on the monuments, 
a figure of Justice (Ma). This deity, adorned with the 
ostrich feather, receives him on his arrival. Before him 
are seen the scales of divine judgment. In one is placed 
the statute of divine justice, in the other the heart of the 
deceased, who stands in person by the balance containing 
his heart, while Anubis watches the other scale. Horus 
examines the plummet, indicating which way the beam pre- 
ponderates. Thoth, the justifier, the Lord of the divine 
word, records the sentence." * 

According to Herodotus, " the Egyptians were the first to 
maintain that the soul of man is immortal." There is abun- 

* Egypt's Place, etc. vol. 1, p. 27. 



DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 213 

dant evidence of this belief in tlie sculptures on the tombs. 
But the tombs themselves, and the process of embalming — 
which could not have been a merely sanatory invention — 
show that they believed also in the indestructibility of the 
body. The Egyptians styled their sepulchres " eternal hahi- 
tatio7is, and neglected no excess of magnificence in their 
construction ; while they termed the dwellings of the living 
inns, to be inhabited only for a limited period, and paid lit- 
tle attention to the mode of building or ornamenting 
them." * 

They believed, that after a long cycle of transmigration 
the purified soul would return to occupy the body, and 
would be conscious of the beauty of its habitation. Hence 
they attached so much importance to the rites of sepulture, 
and made the allowing or the denying these to the dead 
a motive to virtue in the living. A brief account of these 
rites, borrowed from Sir Gardner Wilkinson,t will serve 
to illustrate this belief, and its practical effect ; it will show 
also how closely the Greeks copied the Egyptians in their 
mythology. 

" The body having been embalmed, was restored to the 
family, either already placed in the mummy case, or merely 
wrapped in bandages, if we may believe Herodotus, who 
says the friends of the deceased made the cofiin ; though, 
from the paintings in the tombs, it would appear that the 
body was frequently enveloped and put into the case by the 
undertakers, previous to its being returned to the family. 
After it had been deposited in its case, which was generally 
inclosed in two or three others, all richly painted, according 
to the expense they were pleased to incur, ' it was placed in a 
room of the house upright against the wall,' until the tomb 
was ready, and all the necessary preparations had been 

* Diodorus in Wilkinson. f Vol. v. p. 427. 



214 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

made for the funeral. The coffin, or mummy-case, was then 
carried forth and deposited in the hearse, drawn upon a 
sledge as already described, to the sacred lake of the nome ; 
notice having been previously given to the judges, and a 
public announcement made of the important day. Forty- 
two judges having been summoned, -and placed in a semi- 
circle, near the banks of the lake, a boat was brought up 
expressly for the occasion, under the direction of a boatman 
called in the Egyptian language, Charon ; ' and it is from 
hence,' says Diodorus, ' that the fable of Hades is said to 
be derived, which Orpheus introduced into Greece. For 
while in Egypt he had witnessed this ceremony, and he 
imitated a portion of it, and supplied the rest from his own 
imagination.' 

" When the boat was ready for the reception of the 
coffin, it was lawful for any person who thought proper, to 
bring forward his accusation against the deceased. If it 
could be proved that he had led an evil life, the judges de- 
clared accordingly, and the body was deprived of the ac- 
customed sepulture; but if the accuser failed to establish 
what he advanced, he was subject to the heaviest penalties. 
When there was no accuser, or when the accusation had 
been disproved, the relations ceased from their lamentations, 
and pronounced encomiums on the deceased. They did not 
enlarge upon his descent, as is usual among the Greeks, for 
they hold that all Egyptians are equally noble ; but they 
related his early education and the course of his studies ; 
and then, praising his piety and justice in manhood, his 
temperance, and the other virtues he possessed, they suppli- 
cated the gods below to receive him as a companion of the 
pious. This announcement was received by the assembled 
multitude with acclamations, and they joined in extolling 
the glory of the deceased, who was about to remain forever 
•with the virtuous in the regions of Hades. The body was 



DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. 215 

then taken by those who had family catacombs already pre- 
pared, and placed in the repository allotted to it. 

" Some," continues the historian, " who were not possessed 
of catacombs, constructed a new apartment for the purpose 
in their own house, and set the coffin upright against the 
firmest of the wails ; and the same w^as done with the bodies 
of those who had been debarred the rites of burial on ac- 
count of the accusation brought against .them, or in con- 
sequence of debts they or their sons had contracted. These 
last, however, if their children's children happened to be 
prosperous, were released from the impediments of their 
creditors, and at length received tlie ceremony of a magnifi- 
cent burial. It was,- indeed, solemnly established in Egypt 
that parents and ancestors should have a more marked 
token of respect paid them by their family, after they had 
been transferred to their everlasting habitations. Hence 
originated the custom of depositing the bodies of their de- 
ceased parents as pledges for the payment of borrowed 
money ; those who failed to redeem those pledges being sub- 
ject to the heaviest disgrace, and deprived of burial after 
their own death. 

" The disgrace of being condemned at this public ordeal 
was in itself a strong inducement to every one to abstain 
from crime ; not only was there the fear of leaving a bad 
name, but the dread of exposure ; and we cannot refuse to 
second the praises of Diodorus in favor of the authors of so 
wise an institution." 

Lepsius was impressed with the fact, that " the desire to 
labor for eternity " is imprinted upon all the buildings and 
monuments of ancient Egypt; and says, that "the belief 
which was early formed of a life after death, and of a re- 
lation continuing to subsist between the soul and the body, 
was closely connected with this." 

To this must we attribute the extraordinary pains to 



216 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

secure and to conceal the sarcophagus within the tomb. 
" They ingeniously closed the large granite sarcophagi by 
means of metal rods, which fell down into the holes pre- 
pared for them in the sides at the last thrust of the cover, 
which was driven in like a drawer, so that the sarcophagi 
v'ould only be opened by the destruction of the colossal 
masses of stone. They also endeavored to guard even the 
passage which led to the sarcophagi chambers by heavy 
stone trap-doors, and by ingeniously building up the walls, 
so as to divert the attention, and to protect them in every 
possible way from inroad and desecration." 

But in spite of these precautions, many of the royal 
tombs at Thebes were opened by the Persians, their treas- 
ures plundered, their sculptures marred, and their mummied 
tenants exposed to insult and destruction. This rifling of 
the sacred tenements of a conquered people was repeated 
under the Greeks and the Romans, whose writers have left 
us some account of the tombs that were open in their day. 

In the early part of the Christian era, these desecrated 
tombs became the refuge of the persecuted saints from the 
cruelties of Diocletian ; and in some of them the rude in- 
scriptions of Christian refugees cover the splendid sculptures 
of priests and kings. Again, under Constantine and The- 
odosius, these dry and spacious tombs were the favorite 
cells of monks, when " the cities of Egypt were filled with 
bishops, and the deserts of Thebais swarmed with hermits." 

Since the Mahommedan invasion, the Arabs have ran- 
sacked their chambers for hidden treasures, and the Turks 
have used their materials for common building purposes. In 
modern times, the antiquarian has taken up his abode in the 
tombs, while prosecuting his researches. Sir Gardner Wil- 
kinson constructed a very comfortable house by erecting a 
court, and a portico in front, of two or three contiguous 
tombs, which furnished a cool retreat from the heat of a 



DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY. ^ 217 

glaring Theban uoon. Here the English scholar transferred 
to the pages of present history, the stone-engraved annals 
of the past, and produced a living Egypt from her tombs. 
Here, too, where royal festivals are pictured, the champagne 
and hock of savans and travellers flowed freely, while the 
inspectors of mummies " hobnobbed Avith Pharaoh, glass to 
glass." Now, the tombs are the refuge of the villagers from 
the relentless conscription, or the permanent abodes of guards 
appointed by the government to protect the sculptures from 
further injury. Men, women, and children, sheep, goats, 
and chickens, are huddled together in dirty straw upon the 
floors of these royal courts of the dead. The travellei*, 
resting for his noontide lunch, is besieged by mummy vend- 
ers, who unroll before his eyes — perhaps upon his very 
plate — a head, a hand, a foot, all swathed in musty cloth 
and bitumen, which they offer at any price, from a pound 
sterling to a piastre. 

The tombs, that the pride and power of the Pharaohs 
excavated for the perpetual abode of their embalmed bodies, 
and that the religious sentiment of ages guarded for im- 
mortahty, now empty and desecrated, the lurking-places of 
thieves and beggars, look forth from the unchanging moun- 
tains upon the ever-flowing river and the wide spreading 
desert, to testify that God's works only shall endure ; while 
the fragments of their illustrious tenants fill every museum 
of Europe, or are hawked about in the crumbling temples 
and the deserted necropolis of their ancient capital. 

" Why should this worthless tegument endure, 
If its undying guest be lost forever? 
Oh ! let us keep the soul embalmed and pure 

In living virtue — that when both must sever, 
Although corruption radl^ our frame consume, 
The immortal spirit in the skies may bloom." 
19 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

DISSOLVING VIEWS PANORAMA OP KARNAC. 

In order to a complete view of Thebes, past and pres- 
ent, one should reproduce its sculptured story, and make 
it witness for itself. The temple of Karnac, in its several 
parts, marks the rise, the growth, the decline, and the fall 
of Egypt. This temple had a growth of twenty-five hun- 
dred years, from a small sanctuary to " a city of temples." 
Svery principal era of the national history is represented in 
this stupendous pile ; and as we go leisurely around it, and 
translate into our own language, or vivify into present 
actual scenes, the processions, the battles, the ceremonies, 
the religious offerings, and the state displays sculptured on 
its walls and columns, and for the most part still legible, we 
behold all Egypt move before us as in a panorama, whose 
scenes and actors are instinct with life. This animated re- 
production of the sculptures which I attempted when on the 
ground, I would hope to convey to the reader by following 
in course the histories here written on the stone. 

I stood in Karnac, under the light of the full moon. It 
was an hour for silence, and we enjoined this upon each 
other, and gave ourselves to solitary musing. The cuckoo, 
that had wooed us with his note as we reposed under the 
great pillars in the sultry noon, had gone to nestle with his 
mate ; and the myriad birds thai by day had fluttered along 
the corridors, had hid themselves in the crevices of the 
capitals. Even the owl that hooted as we entered, was still. 



DISSOLVING VIEWS. 219 

Only the moon was there, threading the avenues with silver 
footsteps, and holding her clear light that we might read 
the sculptured chronicles of kings. 

We sat down in the centre of the grand avenue. Twelve 
majestic pillars on either hand towered along its length, and 
seemed, as of old, to support an arch of azure studded with 
stars. The dismantled towers of the grand entrance, 
whose bases stand like pyramids truncated to sustain the 
firmament, grew more gigantic in the shadow of the 
columns, while their once massive gates, uncovered by the 
hand of time, seemed only to have lifted up their heads to 
let the King of Glory in. In the avenue that crossed beside 
our seat — one of twelve, having each ten columns of huge 
dimensions — at either extremity, a column had fallen cross- 
wise against its neighbor, carrying with it its fragment of 
the stone roof, and there it hung almost ethereal in the still 
moonlight — a symbol of the struggle between man and 
time. Under the corridors, darkness brooded over the 
fragments of sculptured stone ; but beyond the other portal, 
the yet perfect obelisk stood in pensive majesty among its 
fallen mates, and from its clear, hard face projected in the 
moonbeams the symbols of the power that built these halls, 
and of the worship that sustained them. The spell of 
Egypt was complete. For two months I had lived under 
its deepening power. At length, in the sepulchres of its 
kings, and on the walls and pillars of its temples, I had 
seen the Egypt of forty centuries revived as in a panorama 
fresh from the artist's pencil, and had lived in the Egypt 
that the Nile then watered, as in the so-called Egypt that it 
waters now. And here I had come to bid it farewell, to 
take a last look at its grave ; and yet the witching moonlight 
made it live again. The breath of the south fanning the 
columns that in their fourth decade of centuries wear no 
ivied wreath of age, warmed their still grandeur into life. 



220 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

and with Memnon's charm they sang to the moon the great 
epic of the Past. As I listened, all art, all learning, all 
religion, all poetry, all history, all empire, and all time 
swept through my wondering soul. 

Leaving my companions, I wandered over the fragments 
of columns and sphinxes and colossi, till, gaining a mound 
that half buries the front area of the temple, I clambered 
up the steps worn by age in its stupendous wall, and stand- 
ing in their foremost tower, looked back on Karnac. But 
no change of place, nor sight of fallen columns and decay- 
ing walls, could break the spell. I had walked over the 
grave of Egypt, I had stumbled against the fragments of its 
sepulchre, — yet Egypt stood before me. 

First came the second son of Ham, with a long retinue 
of camels and of servants, lured southward by the fertile 
valley of the Nile, till, where the mountains widen their 
embrace around the well-watered plain, he pitches his tent, 
and founds an infant city. Generations pass, and the son 
who in this plain inherits the patriarchal wealth and power, 
greedy of the patrimony of his brethren to the north, wages 
a fratricidal war, and seizing upon all Mizr or " the land of 
Khem," effaces from it the name of his ancestors, and, in- 
vesting it with his own, gives Egyj)t, (Copt or Gurt,) a name 
and a power in the newly divided earth. Other genera- 
tions pass, and the first king of Egypt comes with barbaric 
pomp, from the capital he has founded at the north, to visit 
his native Theha, the real ''•head'' or capital, and here 
offers to its divinity the rude shrine whose traces linger be- 
hind yonder obelisk. 

Ages roll on. The swelling Nile pours out increasing 
fatness on the land. The earth brings forth by handfuls. 
Fat-fleshed, well-favored cattle come up out of the river 
and feed in the meadow. There is great plenteousness for 
man and beast. But with all the plenty there is no waste. 



PANOKAMA OF KAENAC. 221 

In every city huge granaries are built, and in these the 
grain is piled, as the sand of the sea, without measure. 
There is a strange wisdom near the throne of Pharaoh. 
Again, the east wind blows, and the scorching sands of the 
Arabian desert are heaped upon the fertile Nile. In the 
mountains of Ethiopia there is no rain. The river shrinks 
away. The plain of Thebes is dry. The people cry for 
bread, but the keys of the great storehouses are in the hand 
of the ruler of the land. They bring to him theu' money ; 
they bring to him their cattle ; they sell to him their land ; 
they sell to him their very selves for bread. Again, the 
east wind ceases ; the rains fall, the river rises ; the desert 
retreats ; the land revives. And now the great Pharaoh, 
whom the counsel of a captive Jew has made possessor of 
all the treasure and all the land of Egypt, moved by a relig- 
ious sentiment but half enlightened, would make a votive 
offering to his god. A fleet of barges covers the bosom of 
the Nile, which with waving banners and gorgeous emblems 
and increasing music, have borne the monarch from his 
northern to his southern capital. 

With solemn pomp the procession of priests and soldiers 
and chief officers of state, with the uplifted monarch in the 
midst, files from the river to the rude sanctuary of Ifenes, 
which the skill of masons and of sculptors has already sur- 
rounded with columns of rich red granite, and chambers of 
polished stone, and with colossal statues of the king — the 
offering he brings to the divinity, whom he adores as the 
preserver of the land ; and while the monarch bows before 
the god, the sound of trumpets, and the fragrance of incense, 
and the chanting of the priests, announce to the multitude 
that Amun accepts the gift, and will be henceforth wor- 
shipped in their temple. Osirtasen the Great passes away. 

The ages roll. A native Theban usurps the throne of 
the northern Pharaohs, and succeeds to the power they had 
19* 



222 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

consolidated tlirougli the counsel of the Hebrew, vouch- 
safed to them through fourscore years. But Joseph is dead ; 
embalmed and coffined in a royal sarcophagus ; and Amosis 
the usurper knows him not. Oppression fills the land, and 
falls most heavily upon the seed of Joseph. 

Another Theban Pharaoh mounts the throne ; and to pre- 
serve the power that the wisdom of a Hebrew gave, deter- 
mines to cut off the issue of the Hebrews from the land. 
Yet in his own house, even as a son, in all the learnmg of 
his schools, amid all the splendors of his court, is nurtured 
a young Hebrew who yet shall desolate the land that Joseph 
blessed. But just now this rising terror has fled into the 
desert, and the first Thothmes comes in peaceful pomp to 
offer to the divinity of Thebes the gigantic obelisks that 
bear his name. He plants them yonder in the area before 
the sanctuary of Osirtasen. 

The third Thothmes is on the throne. There is groaning 
throughout the land of Egypt ; there is deep sorrow in the 
land of Goshen. The monarch would make his name im- 
mortal by the temples, the palaces, and the monuments he 
rears in every city, from the Great Sea to the cataracts of 
Nubia. He adorns his native capital upon its western bank 
with a new sanctuary added to the temple of his father, and 
with another temple inclosed with brick, that bear in hiero- 
glyphics his own initials; and here at Karnac, he builds 
behind the sanctuary, a thousand feet from where I stand, 
the grand edifice of fifty columns that surpasses all the 
royal architecture yet seen in Thebes. In its adytum he 
enshrines a colossal figure of the deified hawk that he wor- 
ships. He is the great architect of Egypt, and he will fill 
the land with the memorials of his reign. . Heliopolis and 
Noph, Zoan and Sin, attest his grandeur. 

But the voice of another God now thunders in his ear. 
The exiled Hebrew has returned. The land is filled with 



PANORAMA OF KARNAC. 223 

plagues — frogs, lice, flies, blood, murrain, hail, locusts, 
darkness, death. The king has gone from Thebes to Zoan, 
his most northern seat, where these judgments overtake him. 
The land of Goshen, that had sweltered under his exactions, 
breathes more freely, and he lets the people go. But 
gathering his chariots of war in mad haste, he pursues 
them, and hems them in between the mountains and the sea. 
Eager for his prey, he plunges into the channel God has 
made for them, and the proud architect of Egypt returns 
not even to occupy the gorgeous tomb he had prepared for 
himself at Thebes. 

The ages roll on, and a mighty conqueror sits on the 
throne of Egypt. With his myriad chariots he sweeps 
Ethiopia on the south, and Canaan on the north, and gather- 
ing all the forces of the Nile, he shakes Lebanon with his 
tread, and scatters the hosts of Syria on the plains of the 
Euphrates. And now there is an unwonted stir in Thebes. 
From all Egypt the priests and the great men are gathered 
to greet the conqueror's return. In the distance, amid clouds 
of infantry, is seen the chariot of the king. Bound to his 
chariot wheels are the captive princes he has taken in his 
wars. Behind him are his son, and the royal scribe who 
bears the record of his victories. A long line of captives, 
bound about the necks with cords, follow in his train. The 
cortege moves from temple to temple through the city, till it 
reaches that of Karnac. Here, ahghting from his chariot, 
the monarch enters the temple of Amunre, to present his 
captives and booty to the protecting deity of Thebes ; then 
laying his captives o.n the block, with a ponderous club he 
dashes out their brains as a sacrifice to the god, and amid 
the acclamations of the people, is borne like a god to his 
own palace. 

And now the conqueror, reposing on his laurels, gives 
himself to the work of enriching the capitol with new and 



224 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

more splendid edifices for the honor of its divinities, and 
the commemoration of his reign. From all Egypt are 
summoned the masons and sculptors, the painters and arti- 
ficers and "cunning workmen;" and the army that had 
stormed the heights of Lebanon now levies from the moun- 
tains of the Arabian desert their tribute of limestone and 
sandstone and granite of various hues, of sienite and por- 
phyry and alabaster, to construct these temples, and to adorn 
these avenues. The grand hall of Karnac rises in its 
majestic proportions, a fit approach to the sanctuary of 
Amun. Its gates lift up their heads. Its tenfold avenues 
rear their massive, lofty, graceful pillars — each a single 
stone hewn into a rounded, swelling shaft, with a wreathed 
or flowered capital — and with their roof of solid stone, 
compose the portico that there in the moonlight, restored to 
its original perfection, stands confessed the wonder of the 
world. The cliisel sculptures on its walls and columns the 
battle scenes of the king and his offerings to the god, and 
the name of Osirei passes into history. 

His son succeeds to his victories and to his glory. For, 
on the far off plains of Asia, the great Sesostris breaks the 
power of the Assyrian hosts, and leads their captive chiefs 
in chains. Babylon bows to Egypt. There is another day 
of exultation in the capital ; but the pomp of the returning 
Osirei pales before the national ovation to his son. The 
priests, in their sacred vestments, go forth to meet him, 
bearing aloft the figures of his illustrious ancestoiis, from 
Menes to Osirei. The king, alighting from his chariot, 
mounts the triumphal car prepared for his reception, whose 
fiery steeds are led by liveried gi'ooms. His fan-bearers 
wave the flabella over his head, and the priests and the 
chief men of the nation kneel in homage at his throne. 
And now the grand procession forms to enter the city. 
Trumpeters herald its approach, and bands of music, with 



PANORAMA OF KARNAC. 225 

dioristers, form the van. In long line the priests and offi- 
cers of state precede the monarch, bearing sceptres, arms, 
and other insignia, and the cushioned steps of the throne. 
The statues of his ancestors head the royal column, and 
after these is borne a statue of the god upon men's shoul- 
ders, under a gilded canopy. The sacred bull, adorned with 
garlands, is led by members of the sacerdotal order. The 
monarch is attended by his scribes, who exhibit proudly the 
scroll of his achievements. Behind his car are dragged the 
captives, their chained hands uplifted for mercy, and their 
cries and lamentations mingling wildly with the bursts of 
music and the shouts of the multitude. These are followed 
•by the spoils of war — oxen, chariots, horses, and sacks of 
gold ; and beyond, a corps of infantry in close array, flanked 
by numerous chariots, bring up the rear. The vast throng 
sweep from temple to temple, and rend the air with acclama- 
tions. At length the divinity, that had been taken from its 
shrine to welcome the victor, is brought before its own ady- 
tum. Here the high-priest offers incense to the monarch, 
who, in turn, alights from his throne and burns incense to 
the god. And now the horrid sacrifice of war is made to 
the patron deity. The wretched captives are beaten in the 
presence of the king ; their right hands are cut off, and 
being counted by the scribes, are retained as trophies : their 
persons are horribly mutilated ; their heads are severed by 
the sword or mangled by the mace, and the gorgeous, bar- 
barous scene is closed. 

There is peace in Egypt ; and the king builds, on yonder 
western bank, the majestic and beautiful Memnonium, 
covers its walls with the story of his victories, and sets 
before its gate the stupendous statue of himself, the symbol 
of the grandeur and the power of Egypt, enthroned in a 
sublime and an immortal repose. He builds'the vast area 
of Luxor, with its massive gates and towers ; before these 



226 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

plants colossal statues of himself and lofty obelisks, and 
lines with huge symbolic sculptures the avenue to Karnac. 
Here he lays up before the shrine of Amun — as depicted 
on the walls — a gorgeous bax'ge overlaid with gold without, 
and with silver within, a tribute from the spoils of war. 
He enriches the walls of the grand hall by adding to the 
sculptured story of his father's reign the battle scenes of his 
own ; and before the portico constructs this area of a 
hundred thousand square feet, surrounded with its covered 
corridor, and adorned with sphinxes and a central avenue 
of tufted columns, and faced with these stupendous towers. 
He throws around the whole a massive wall, and Karnac 
stands complete in the glory of the great Rameses. 

Then follows the resplendent dynasty of all the Osirei 
and the Rameses, and Egypt culminates to its meridian 
splendor. Her schools rise with her temples, and the epic 
bard of Scio sings the Hundred Gates of Thebes, while the 
priests and the philosophers of young Greece resort to the 
Mother of Mythology and of Letters, and Grecian sculptors 
come to study the forms and creations of the Mother of Art. 
The king of Israel, whose fame for wisdom and for wealth 
is known in all the earth, woos the daughter of the king 
of Egypt, and she whom " the sun had looked upon " on the 
confines of Ethiopia, shines in the golden palace at Jeru- 
salem, " beautiful as Tirzeh,- and comely as the tents of 
Kedar." 

But again the hosts of Egypt are marshalled for battle ; 
again they sweep the borders of the north ; again is heard 
the shout of victory ; again Thebes is astir for the con- 
queror's return. Now Shishah brings to the temple of 
Amun the treasures of the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem ; 
the golden shields of Solomon, and the treasures of the pal- 
ace he had " built. Twelve hundred chariots, and sixty 
thousand horsemen, and footmen without number, swell the 



PANORAMA OF KAKNAC. 227 

train of the victorious king. Nailing the heads of his 
wretched captives to the block of the executioner, he whets 
his sword to sacrifice them to the god ; and the blood of 
Israel once more cries to God from the land of Egypt. 

From afar the voice of the prophet speaks the answer of 
Jehovah to that cry, " Behold, I am against Pharaoh king 
of Egypt, and will break his arms ; — and I will cause the 
sword to fall out of his hand. Howl ye ; woe, woe the 
day ! For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is 
near, a cloudy day. The sword shall come upon Egypt ; 
and the pride of her power shall come down." 

Again a mighty host, sweeping from the north, hovers 
upon the plain of Thebes. The idols are moved in their 
temples, the cry of the people is in the streets. But it is 
not now the return of her victorious king that stirs the 
royal city. The great ram from the plains of Persia, 
pushing westward and southward, gores Egypt with his 
horns, overthrows her temples and her statues, treads 
Memnon and Rameses in the dust, drinks up the river and 
devours the valley. There is sorrow and groaning in the 
land of Egypt for a hundred years, when lo ! again the 
dust of mighty hosts sweeps from the north. The he-goat 
from the west, moved with choler at the ram, that drinks up 
the great rivers, rushes upon him in the fury of his power, 
and casts him down and stamps upon him. The Persian 
conqueror of Thebes retires before the Macedonian con- 
queror of Persia. 

Greece, though a conqueror, pays homage to Egypt as 
her mistress. New cities are built; temples and monu- 
ments are restored. Upon the plain of Thebes, new works 
of art unite the sculptured records of the Ptolemies with 
the broken tablets of the Pharaohs. Karnac itself opens 
new portals, and revives its ancient splendor. Again the 
schools of Egypt are visited from Greece. And where 



228 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Homer drank his inspiration, and Herodotus pored over 
the hieroglyphics and the papyrus records and the dim tra- 
ditions of the then old world, Plato comes to ponder the 
great mysteries of the soul's existence, and its relations to 
the Infinite. 

But the doom of Egypt is not yet fulfilled. Her resur- 
rection cannot now come. The gigantic horn that sweeps 
the stars, trails the young Egypt of Alexander in the dust. 

Again she lifts her head and wqos her conqueror to 
repose awhile in the lap of luxury. Beauty usurps the 
dominion of power ; and the golden barge of Cleopatra 
sweeps up the Nile with silken sails perfumed with 
sweetest odors, or moves with silver oars attuned to the soft 
melody of lutes. Rome adds her tamer art to the great 
majesty of Egypt, and restores yet further what the Persian 
had destroyed. Yet Egypt may not rise. 

A new power enters to possess the land. Under the 
Roman name, the religion that had visited the land with 
Abraham, with Joseph, and with Moses, comes to enshrine 
itself in these old temples, emptied of their gods and 
broken in their forms. The voice of prayer and praise to 
the God of Israel is heard in the temple built by their op- 
pressor, and the name of the infant whom Egypt sheltered, is 
spoken with reverence and adoration in all her holy places. 
Yonder, in the farthest temple of this mighty pile, a Christian 
church assembles ; there, in the court of Luxor, stands another 
Christian altar, while, across the river, the colonnade of 
Medeenet Habou encompasses the lesser columns of a 
Christian temple built within its folds. But the spirit of 
the old temple lingers in its form, and with it embraces the 
new. Again the liveried priests march through the corri- 
dors, bearing mysterious symbols, and chanting unknown 
strains. Again the pomp of state is blended with the pomp 
of worship, and the pictured saint but plasters over the 



PANORAMA OF KARNAC. 229 

sculptured deity. The religion aiid the empire of Rome are 
alike effete, and can give no life to Egypt. 

Barbaric hordes from the east pour in upon the land, and 
sweep these both away. The sword of the Moslem, hacking 
the plastered walls, writes there in blood the forgotten 
truth, There is one God, though it add thereto the stupen- 
dous lie, that makes the other cardinal of his religion. The 
wild man of the desert pitches his tent upon the plain 
where Mizraim halted centuries before, or hides liimself 
under the cover of broken tombs and temples. He hardly 
moves from his retreat, when the imperious Turk, his 
brother Moslem, proclaims himself master of Egypt and 
Arabia by the will of God. No ; here sits the Arab on 
this luxurious plam, among these crumbling giants of the 
past, startled at liis own shadow, without the spirit to fight 
either for himself against his tyrant, or for his country 
in that tyrant's service. Here he sits, where Osirei and 
Kameses and Shishak have chronicled their names and 
deeds beside their own gigantic portraits. Here he sits, 
where moved in royal state the conqueror of Ethiopia, of 
Judah, of Syria, and of Babylon. Here he. sits, where the 
fierce Cambyses dealt his retribution; where Alexander 
moved with a pomp that none but he could boast ; where 
Ceesar followed in the train of mighty men — yet owned the 
greater might of woman. Here he sits — 11 faut descendre, 
said my guide, who had tortured his Arabic gutturals into 
a rude French, il faut descendre — it is necessary to go 
down. II faut descendre, repeated I, as I looked over upon 
the tombs of the kings, all drear and ghostly in the moon- 
light ; and looked where Memnon stood, and all was desolate ; 
and looked toward Luxor, where the moonlight stole faintly 
through its broken towers ; and turned and looked at Karnac, 
as the meridian moon now shone upon heaps of rubbish, and 
broken columns, and crumbKng walls ; II faut descendre, 
20 



230 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

It must go down ; and, turning to descend, I stumbled 
over an Arab hovel, plastered upon the very top of the tower 
of Sesostris, and heard the yelping of the dogs from the 
huts that bury the side temple of the conqueror of Babylon. 
The spell was broken ; and Egypt was a dream. 

Eiding back, amid barking dogs and shivering shiunking 
Arabs, over the dusty plain to Luxor, I laid down upon the 
divan where, two months before, I had dreamed of Egypt, 
when, entering the Nile, I felt her resistless spell. But no 
dream of Egypt came. Egypt herself had vanished. As 

A DREAM WHEN ONE AWAKETH, SO, O LORD, WHEN THOU 
AWAKEDSX, THOU DIDST DESPISE HER IMAGE. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

A CHAPTER OF ITEMS TAETING FROM THEBES GET- 
TING NEWS THE SIROCCO EMIGRATION INAUGU- 
RATION DAT. 

"I've pretty mucli concluded up my mind," that that 
nineteenth century of which I used to hear so much, ages 
ago, in a remote corner of the world where I then resided, 
was a decided humbug. Here, where the world is certainly 
old enough to know its own age, and to keep the reckoning 
of centuries, I can't find anybody that has even heard of it. 
The people, living in these parts, are all so many moons old, 
and their great events are measured from the Hegira, the 
time when Mohammed ran away from Mecca, about twelve 
hundred years ago. They have never heard of the nine- 
teenth century, and yet they seem to be an easy, contented 
sort of people, quite happy in their way, and the more 
" knowing " among them feel quite above any visitors from 
the nineteenth century aforesaid. I have inquired of the 
" oldest inhabitant " in this village of Thebes, a very elderly 
and venerable gentleman, who sits out of doors sunning 
himself in a great stone chair, with his hands on his knees, — 
but though he is said to have spoken to the sun every 
morning for thirty-three centuries, I can't get out of him 
that he knows any such character. Once, I thought he 
winked blandly toward Karnac, on the other side of the 
river, where are recorded all the dynasties since the flood, 
and going there, I found some marks on the wall that may 



232 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

be understood to refer to the nineteenth century; but 
instead of A. d. it was b. c, and these two intervening 
letters of the chronological alphabet involved me in the laby- 
rinth of an interminable antiquity. The fact is, there is 
no nineteenth century here. 

I believe that fictitious character used to pride itself upon 
steamboats, railroads, magnetic telegraphs, cheap postage, 
and penny newspapers ; and it had so imposed upon my 
youthful fancy, that I once imagined these among the neces- 
saries of life. But I do aver that tliis was all a humbug. 
I haven't heard of any such inventions since a day when 
the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, and yet 
am not only alive, but as happy as possible, without the 
least sense of privation from the absence of these " necessa- 
ries." 

What need of steamboats, when one can make the voyage 
of six hundred miles, from Alexandria to Thebes, in less 
than forty days, in a boat dragged and poled along just as 
the great Osirtasen's was, when Joseph's forethought made 
him master of all the soil, and he came up here from " On " 
to build a sanctuary ? No doubt his prime minister voy- 
aged up the Nile in just such a dahabeeh as is sculptured 
on the walls of these temples and tombs, when he went 
throughout all the land of Egypt, over which he had been 
made a prince. 

As to railroads, of what use would such things be, where 
no roads at all are wanted ? If a camel and a donkey, 
without bridle or stirrups, were good enough for the Father 
of the Faithful, when he came to Egypt, they are good 
enough for any of his children. Of the telegraph, it is 
enough to show the absurdity of this boasted invention, to 
observe, that in this land of sublime repose there is notl^ng- 
to be telegraphed, and nowhere to telegraph it to. We 
need no cheap postage when there are no mails, and as for 



PARTING FROM THEBES. 233 

penny newspapers, we disdain to read any thing of less 
solidity than an obelisk, or " later " and cheaper than the 
papyrus rolls, filched by Arabs from the sarcophagi of 
kings. 

O Nineteenth Century ! 

It was with feelings of sadness that we took our departui-e 
from Thebes. We had there studied Egypt in its history 
and in its monuments, till they had become as household 
things. From its gigantic ruins we had reconstructed the 
City of the Hundred Gates ; from the devices on its tombs, 
we had reproduced the old Egyptian life ; and almost as 
familiarly as we walk Broadway, we had walked admiringly 
the streets of Thebes, just as they were 

" Three thousand years ago, 
When the Memnonium was in all its glory; 
And time had not begun to overthrow 
Those temples, palaces, and piles stupendous, 
Of which the very ruins are tremendous." 

We had diacovered 

" What secret melody was hidden 
In Memnon's statue, that at sunrise played." 

We had handled the fine linen of Egypt, and its papyrus 
scrolls; and had compelled the haughty Pharaoh of the 
Exodus to sit for his portrait in plain brown paper. We 
had lost ourselves in the dim and sombre silence of pre- 
historic ages. But with the season advancing, the river 
falling, and the desert and Palestine to be traversed, we 
must not linger. As we turned away from Thebes to look 
again upon the mud villages of the Nile, we passed at once 
from the grandeur of the Pharaohs to the basest of the 
kingdoms, where, amid the unparalleled fertility of nature, 
and the unrivalled monuments of antiquity, there is found no 
recuperative energy, no advancing civilization, but continual 
20* 



234 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

deterioration and decay. The grave o"f old Egypt is a place 
for solemn thought. Wheat and barley grow over the 
buried capital, and the slow-creaking sakia sings its requiem. 
But more oppressive is the living death around. 

News 1 News ! Even as I have seen a hearse-man drive 
rollicking back from Greenwood, smoking his cigar and 
whipping his horses into a gallop, no sooner did we turn our 
backs upon the sombre necropolis of the Past, than we 
plunged again into the dashing excitements of the present." 
While going up the river, knowing that our backs were 
turned upon the living world, and that we could not by any 
possibility get intelligence of any thing transpiring in Europe 
or America, we put on a studied indifference to events there 
occurring, and gave ourselves up to the sluggish influences of 
climate and association in the land of sublime repose. But 
our prow once headed for the Mediterranean, the electric 
influence of modern civilization thrilled our inactive nerves, 
and we who had lived so long without letters or newspapers 
as to cease to plan for them, were, of a sudden, all agog for 
news. 

The only way to get news on the Nile, is by hailing boats 
that are coming up from Cairo with later dates. As soon 
as a boat is descried with the flag of any European nation, 
the gun is made ready for a salute, and a favorable position 
is selected for hailing. Commonly one of two passing boats, 
and sometimes both, will be going — one with the current, 
the other with the wind — at a rate that admits only of the 
exchange of salutations and good wishes. 

News was in great demand from us as we went up the 
river ; and we split our throats in telling all Englishmen of 
the Aberdeen ministry, until we found that this news had 
gone before us by some faster boat that had passed us in 
the night. One hearty Englishman joined us in nine cheers 
for " England and the United States, Progress and Reform." 
We had kindly greetings with several Americans. 



GETTING NEWS THE SIROCCO. 235 

Going down the river, it was our turn to call for news. 
" The Emperor Napoleon is — ," shouted an English gen- 
tleman, as we passed on the wings of the wind. I ran 
to the stern and begged him to repeat the last word. Raising 
his hands to his mouth, like a trumpet, he cried " The — 
emperor — Napoleon — is — " but again the wind caught 
the one important word, and left us in doubt whether 
he was crowned as he expected, or hung as he deserved. 
For two days we discussed the probabilities of a revolution 
in France, a war with England, a general European war, 
and settled the fate of empires. Another boat came in 
sight. " What news from France ? " I cried. " The Emperor 
is — married ! " 

Wailing, wailing, wailing I Let us go ashore to yonder 
village. A mother has lost her son ; he is to be buried in a 
neighboring village, and the women from that have come 
to mourn. Their doleful chant is accompanied with the 
beating of the tambour and the cymbal, and they dance in a 
circle, jerking their bodies violently, and slapping their 
cheeks with their hands, till they sink down exhausted. 
This is repeated at every street, till they have made the 
circuit of the village. It seems rather a set and mechanical 
mourning, — possibly on the part of some it is professional. 
Only women have part in it, and they take turns in leading 
the rude, indecorous dance, and vie with each other in dis- 
figuring their countenances and persons, in the violence of 
their gesticulations, and in the noise and the continuance of 
their cries. The whole scene brings forcibly to remembrance 
the " mourning women " spoken of in the Scriptures ; but 
there is less of heart grief apparent here than in the first 
mourning scene I witnessed on the Nile. 

The Sirocco ! Wind is a tremendous agent on the Nile. 
Boats can do nothing against it, even in descending the river 
with the current. Sometimes it blows furiously for days and. 



236 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

niglits, lashing the river into a sea. Then one must lie by, 
and seek relief from the rocking boat upon the dusty bank. 
Sometimes a sudden flaw, whirling over the mountains, 
threatens to capsize the boat in the angry stream. Once, 
when under full sail, the re'is suddenly ordered all to be 
made fast, and the boat to be lashed to with double hawsers. 
Looking back, I saw the sky red and angry. In an instant 
the whole horizon was filled with sand, that poured over the 
river and darkened its current ; huge spiral whirlwinds of 
sand sped like flying giants over the plain; the waves 
dashed fiercely against the boat ; the sand choked our nos- 
trils ; gloom, and wrath brooded over the stifled earth, until 
the storm of wind swept by. 

Emigration. It is fortunate for Egypt, and perhaps for 
America too, that the two countries are not in such close 
proximity as Ireland and the United States, with the same 
facilities for emigration. Egypt would be pretty much 
emptied of her population in a year. We have had pro- 
posals to emigrate, from the Mohammedan sheih of a vil- 
lage, from a soldier of the Pasha's ai^y, from Copt Chris- 
|tlans whose sons had just been impressed for military service, 
from workmen in various departments of labor, from donkey 
boys, and from several of our crew. Hassan, in particular, 
volunteered to go to America, and were it not for his family 
we should certainly take him, in the hope that, when 
thoroughly educated under Gospel influences, he might re- 
turn for some useful missionary service in his native land. 
He is a whole-souled man ; of decided character, of deep 
sincerity, of good intellect, of childlike simplicity, and of 
warm affections. He has heard me speak of America and 
its institutions till he he quite burns to go. 

Once I told him he could not bear cold and snow ; he re- 
plied by wrapping his woollen sack around him, and motion- 
ing the transfer of my boots to his bare feet. I told him he 



INAUGURATION DAT. 237 

must work very hard ; with his brawny arm he imitated the 
action of digging with a spade. I named other difficuUies, 
till he said, " you are trying to make it hard, because you 
don't want me to go ; " but when I told him it would cost 
ten thousand piastres to transport him and his family to 
America, he looked upon it as a hopeless case, and said, 
"that was enough to ruin anybody." On the subject of 
religion, he said, that if there were no mosques in America, 
" he could go into his room and pray aloneP It is a pity 
that such a man cannot be qualified by education, as he is by 
nature, and we might well expect would be by grace, to do 
good among his own people. 

The evangelization of Africa is a great problem, that de- 
mands the attention of the Christian church. I cannot see 
how the deportation in mass of newly emancipated slaves, 
crude, ignorant, rampant with liberty, would tend to solve it. 

March 4th. Inauguration day. The following sketch of 
a bit of patriotism and of pleasantry, may serve to illustrate 
the simple manners of the boatmen of the Nile, and the ex- 
pedients for relieving the tedium of the voyage. It is given 
verbatim as it was written at the time ; but, in view of the 
pro-slavery tendencies of the Administration since devel- 
oped, some of its language seems almost prophetic. 

" My country, 'tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing." 

Albeit in all the domestic concerns of the bark " Lotus," 
we have acknowledged the supremacy of our Lady Queen, 
and have been daily fed of " her royal bounty," we could 
not forget on this day, that we were born republicans, and 
have the deepest interest in the prosperity and the perpe- 
tuity of free institutions. Though differing in political senti- 
ments, and, while in no sense partisans, perhaps, repre- 



238 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

senting three shades of political parties in the United 
States, we are one in the love of our common country, one 
in regard for her noble Constitution, one in gratitude for her 
existence and her history, one in the hope of her future 
greatness, and one in prayers for her preservation in right- 
eousness and in true glory. We see in her no evil that 
may not be rectified, no wrong that may not be retrieved, 
by the simple force of public sentiment, enlightened and 
sanctified through the gospel of Christ. Her constellation 
has its fixed place in the firmament, and whatever mists 
now dim its lustre shall be scattered, and the pure light of 
Liberty, of Justice, and of Truth concentred there, shall 
shine upon the nations till the end of time. I can hardly 
say that tl^js love of country has been increased by a separa- 
tion of almost a year, for it has ever been one of the strong- 
est, deepest feelings of the soul ; but the privilege of citi- 
zenship in such a country is more vividly appreciated by 
contrast v/ith the condition of subjects in other lands ; and 
the solicitude for her welfare is rendered more solemn, more 
prayerful, more intense, by the survey of the field of em- 
pires, that with all their wealth, and commerce, and art, 
and learning, and power, perished through their forgetful- 
ness of God. 

Though probably but one of us would have given his 
sufii-age to the Chief Magistrate just elected by the people, 
and though some of us are not without forebodings of evil 
to the cause of freedom, from an administration understood 
to be so far committed to the behests of the only faction 
from which our Union has cause to fear, — the faction that, 
contrary to the whole spirit of the Constitution, and the 
known intentions of its framers, would extend and perpetu- 
ate slavery by the national arm; yet we unite with one 
voice in the desire, that he who this day assumes the presi- 
dential ofiice may be preserved and blessed in the adminis- 



INAUGURATION DAT. 239 

tration of its duties, and may prove an honor and a blessing 
to the nation. 

Besides this more serious view of the occasion, we felt 
that it demanded some formal demonstration on our part, as 
American citizens. Accordingly, at twelve o'clock, the 
American flag was run up to the topmast, the gun was fired, 
and three cheers were given, in which the whole crew, who 
had been instructed as to the ceremonial, most heartily 
joined. The senior member of- our party was then duly 
invested with the office and honors of the presidency, and 
sworn to maintain the Constitution. Brief speeches fol- 
lowed, another round of cheers, and that indispensable cli- 
max to all great occasions of state — a good dinner. The 
new incumbent bore his honors well, and formed his cabinet 
with wisdom and impartiahty. Even " women's rights " 
were respected, without the agency of petitions, conven- 
tions, and platform speeches. 

Several of the crew testified their approbation of our 
mode of making a " Sultan," and their confidence in the 
excellence and stability of the new administration, by offer- 
ing to go home with us to America. It is not unlikely that 
one of the youngest will be retained permanently in the 
service of our new created president. 

This little bit of pleasantry, while it relaxed brains and 
muscles that had been overtaxed with sight-seeing at Thebes, 
and while it gave diversion to our simple-hearted crew, de- 
tracted nothing from that serious and earnest feeling with 
which we hailed another quadrennial anniversary in our 
constitutional existence. Nor on this day only is such a 
feeling present, but always and everywhere, we remember 
the land of our birth. 

" When on the lovely moonlit deep, 
A holy calni doth o'er me creep, 
E'er I compose mine eyes to sleep, 

I'll pray for thee. 



240 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

" When in tlie far-off stranger land, 
Or on the desert's burning sand; 
To Him who saves by his right hand, 

I'll pray for thee. 

" When standing on the ruined site 
Of ancient cities great in might, 
By the pale dim of evening's light, 

I'Upray for thee. 



" When at the lonely rock, so long 
Renowned in history and song, 
To God, the Judge of right and wrong, 
I'll pray for thee. 

"My Country! thou my prayers shall share, 
For thee upon my lieart I bear, 
And trusting in th' Almighty's care, 

I'Upray for thee." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

GIRGEH AND ABYDOS FERTILITY AND DESOLATION. 

We halted at Girgeh, for a visit to the ruins of Abydos, 
some ten miles distant. Abydos was the reputed burial- 
place of Osiris, one of the most sacred of the gods of ancient 
Egypt. According to Strabo, it "formerly held the first 
rank next to Thebes ; " and Mr. Wilkinson infers from its 
ruins, that it " yielded to few cities of Upper Egypt in size 
and magnificence." Our route thither lay across a plain 
which, in extent and fertility, rivals that of Thebes, and 
which is under much better cultivation, being studded with 
villages, and entirely appropriated either to crops or to 
grazing. For the irrigation of this vast area, the main 
dependence is upon the annual overflow of the Nile, when 
the water is let in by canals, so as to flood the whole plain 
for a range of thirty miles by ten, the villages being pro- 
tected by dykes. There are few sahias or shadoofs; and, 
indeed, the soil does not need them, for its crops are 
already as strong and luxuriant as consists with a good 
quality. As we rode along, we passed on the one side 
immense plantations of wheat which the reapers were just 
harvesting, while, on the other hand, was wheat just forming 
in the ear. The sight of crops at different stages, side by 
side, reminded me of the promise, that he that soweth seed 
shall overtake him that reapeth, — when the diffusion of the 
gospel and the gathering of its fruits shall go hand in hand. 

Lai'ge plantations of beans and barley, used as fodder for 
21 



242 EGYPT, PAST AND PPvESENT. 

cattle, alternated with the fields of wheat, without any divi- 
sion by fences. Groups of camels, horses, oxen, sheep, and 
goats, were scattered at intervals over the plain, their keep- 
ers dwelling in booths beside their pasture ground. If 
Abraham was the proprietor of any such plain as this, on 
the southern confines of Palestine, he needed nothing more 
to make him " rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." 

By and by we reached the boundary of this fertility, in 
the arid sands of the Lybian mountains. Here was a large 
lake of salt water, and near by the salt sprinkled over the 
ground, like hoarfrost, indicated the site of another. 
There are similar lakes and pits of salt near the temple of 
Karnac at Thebes. Passing by these, we came upon a 
mound of sand and dust, and broken bricks and pottery, 
strewed over with bleaching human bones, and ascending 
this for several rods, and to an elevation of about sixty feet, 
we came out upon the massive blocks of stone that form the 
roof oi the old temple-palace of Memnon. Here, crawling 
upon our hands and knees, we got under the roof far enough 
to see that it covers two large halls supported by rows of 
massive columns, whose capitals are in the form of the 
lotus bud, still distinctly preserved. The walls, as far as 
could be seen, are covered with sculptures, among which 
the Ibis frequently recurs ; there are also ceremonial pro- 
cessions and battle scenes, such as are usually depicted in 
the sculptures of Egyptian temples. No doubt, if this 
temple should be excavated, it would be one of the most 
remarkable monuments in Egypt. It dates back nearly 
fourteen hundred years before Christ. 

The formation of the roof was peculiar. Large blocks of 
stone were laid endwise from one row of columns to the 
other, and then an arch was hollowed out of this solid 
masonry, still leaving a roof two feet in thickness at its 
centre. The stones were so nicely adjusted, that they fitted 



GIRGEH AND ABTDOS. 243 

closely wltliout cement. The ceiling was studded with 
stars, and with sculptures beautifully colored. I have not 
seen in Egypt more exquisite workmanship. Yet the visitor 
is doomed to disappointment through the great difficulty of 
access to the temple, in consequence of the drifting in of the 
sand from the desert and the neighboring mountains. Near 
by is another temple, also inaccessible, the temple of Osiris, 
built by the great Eameses, and enriched with alabaster 
walls, some fragments of which may yet be found. 

The neighboring mountains are filled with tombs, some of 
which are nearly four thousand years old. Every thing 
indicates that here was the site of a great city — a city of 
wealth, population, and power, enriched with trophies of con- 
quest and monuments of religion. But these buried temples 
alone remain, and the Arabs, who now squat in their rags 
upon the top of the splendid sanctuary of Osiris, have given 
to the place the expressive name of " The Buried." 

The scene is one of utter desolation. Before you, on the 
west, the huge naked limestone bluffs glare fiercely in the 
sun ; around their base, the sand of the desert lies in drifts, 
and beyond, the desert itself stretches in interminable silence. 
Grand and gorgeous temples are buried fifty feet beneath 
you, and all around is one mass of sand, and crumbling brick 
and stone, that reaches to the mountains, and makes this 
section of the plain an utter waste. It is in keeping that 
human bones should lie thus bleaching, amid the fragments 
of human power. 

What empires have perished here ! This whole valley 
of the Nile is filled with the ruins of cities, whose nam.es 
have hardly survived their burial. Everywhere the sites 
of these old cities were well chosen; commonly at some 
defile of the parallel chains of mountains, that run the whole 
length of the river, where the mountains would serve as a 
defence from both man and the desert, while the plain that 



244 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

opens between would yield sustenance, and the river would 
pour out wealth. The city commonly abutted upon the 
mountains, occupying the poorest soil, so as to leave all the 
arable land for cultivation ; and, uniformly, the largest and 
richest plains, and the most picturesque disposition of the 
mountains, indicated the site. No cities of modern times 
are planted with a nicer calculation of commercial and agri- 
cultural advantages, of facilities for defence, or of pic- 
turesque effect, than were those cities of the old Egyptians. 
Yet, how many such cities does the Nile entomb ! 

Of Heliopolis — the On of the Scriptures, a few stones 
only remain. Memphis, or Noph, is a waste. The cities of 
Acanthus, Isis, Busiris, Hercules, or Gom, Cynopolis, Oxy- 
rhincus, Antinoe, Hermopolis, or Thmoun, Alabastron, Psi- 
naula, Pesla, Hieracon, Lycopolis, Antseopolis, Athribis, 
Chemmis, Abydos, Tentyris, and other cities mentioned by 
Strabo, or in the itinerary of Antoninus, or in the old 
manuscripts of the Copts, have hardly a mound or a vestige 
by which to identify their site. Yet some of these were 
cities of large population, and of great wealth, at the time 
when Egypt numbered eight millions, and monopolized the 
commerce of the East. Some of them were capitals of the 
general divisions under which the country was then arranged, 
and were the residences of chief officers of government. 
Even Alexandria, founded by the great Macedonian conquer- 
or of Egypt, and in the time of the Ptolemies, the centre 
of commerce and of learning for the world, presents but 
few memorials of its former grandeur — and one of these is 
the solitary column that commemorates a Roman conqueror. 
Thus cities and empires fade away. Greece borrowed from 
Egypt. Rome rifled Greece, and then rifled Egypt ^Iso. 
Napoleon rifled both Egypt and Rome. 

By the way, Napoleon was the merest imitator. At Paris, 
there is an obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, and in the 



FERTILITY AND DESOLATION. 245 

Louvre are other memorials of Napoleon's triumphs in 
Egypt. But at Rome, one finds in every public place some 
column or obelisk stolen from Egypt, by the imperial rob- 
bers whom Napoleon copied. At Paris, one sees triumphal 
arches commemorative of the Emperor. At Rome, one 
finds plenty such standing or in ruins, and among them one 
which Napoleon very closely copied in the Arc de Triomphe. 
Coming to Egypt, one sees that these triumphal arches of 
the Roman emperors were but a feeble imitation of the 
grand propyla that commemorate the great men of Egypt 
in the presence of her gods, and that still stand in unrivalled 
grandeur, though Persia and Greece and Rome and Mecca 
and France have been here as spoilers, and though Time 
and the Desert have joined their destructive forces to the 
enginery of war. Egypt is buried ; and so is Persia, and so 
is Greece, and so is Rome, and so is the " Great " Napoleon. 
Yet there remam more of the symbols of art, of learning, of 
wealth, of power, in old Egypt now, than all her conquerors 
have left to certify their grandeur in the capitals that they 
enriched with her spoils. " The huried,'' is not the epitaph 
of Abydos alone, nor of the twenty mighty cities that the 
Nile once boasted, but also of the empires that once planted 
their feet upon these ruins, but are now a mound of dust 
and bones. Desolation reigns where once flourished all the 
civilization of the old world. 

But though the empires that once oppressed the individ- 
ual man have passed away, yet oppression has not ceased in 
any of the lands where once they ruled. The wailing of 
women from yonder palm-grove, attests the presence of sor- 
row. The troops of the present government are there, to 
seize fathers, husbands, brothers, for service in the army, 
and are now dragging off their victims in chains. But here 
is something sadder still. As we ride back over the fertile 
plain, we meet a sorrowing group bearing the lifeless body 
21* 



246 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of a woman, who has just been shot by the sheih, for at- 
tempting to rescue her brother from conscription. Des- 
olation reigns in the midst of plenty. It would be a theme 
for the pen of Whittier. 



CHAPTER XXXI, 



ITALIANS AND COPTS. 



One is struck continually with the number of Italians in 
Egypt. At Alexandria and Cairo, a large portion of the 
business in groceries and provisions, and, in general, the sup- 
ply of travellers, has fallen into their hands. They adapt 
themselves easily to oriental manners. The climate suits 
them, the houses are very much like their own, and they 
seem to be as much at home in Egypt as in their native 
Italy. Indeed they are more at home, for many of them 
are living here as exiles and refugees, finding under a Mo- 
hammedan power that freedom and protection which are 
denied them by the Plead of Christendom, and by sundry 
defenders of the faith. The Italians in Egypt are gener- 
ally industrious and well-disposed; although to them not 
the least attractive of oriental habits is, that of sitting before 
a cafe in the open air, drinking Mocha, and smoking a pipe. 
It is a sad comment on the Papacy, that honest and useful 
citizens are driven from the cross to the crescent, for the 
enjoyment of personal liberty, and of business prosperity. 
On the Upper Nile the Italian language is better known to 
the natives than the English, and Italians are frequently met 
in the bazaars in native costume, and to all appearance 
fully domesticated. Egypt affords them an easy retreat 
from their own country ; some have abandoned Italy for 
ever, others bide their time. 

But tliis intermingling of Italians with the Arabs is really 



248 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

profitable for neither. The Italians seem to lose their 
national spirit, and to fall under the spell of oriental life, 
■while the Arabs receive, through them, either infidel notions 
or a caricature of Christianity. 

At Girgeh, as I was strolling through the streets at an 
early hour, I inquired for a Coptic church, and was led to 
a little building in which were sundry pictures of the Vir- 
gin, and an altar illuminated with candles, before which a 
solitary Italian priest, in shabby vestments, that but in part 
concealed the native costume, was performing the mass, 
while a little Arab boy, dirty and stupid, jingled the bell, 
handed the books, and officiated in general as his deputy, 
and finally received the consecrated wafer, and then blew 
out the candles. I knew at once that I was not in a Coptic, 
but a Roman Catholic church. There were present some 
twelve or fifteen Copt proselytes, half a dozen Italians, and 
an English lady and gentleman, who seemed the most 
devout of the assembly, though they wore the air of novices' 
rather than of experts. It was painful to find here an 
emissary of Rome established in Upper Egypt, with all the 
apparatus of his system, while, with the exception of the 
English chaplain at Cairo, there is no Protestant missionary 
in the whole country. If Italy and France teach Egypt 
Christianity, woe worth the day. 

The character and influence of this priest, and, in general, 
of Romanism in Egypt, may be inferred from a further 
extract from the " Journal " of Mr. Patterson, referred to 
in a former chapter. Says Mr. P., — 

" He — the Padre — told us a good deal, both concerning 
his own mission and the system on which all are conducted. 
He is the only missionary here, and there is a nun (also a 
Franciscan) to teach the little girls, etc., and assist him in 
such works as she can. He has also two Copt priests, (con- 
verts,) who are entirely under his order. It appears that a 



ITALIANS AND COPTS. 249 

large body of tlie Copts, clergy and laity, have been recon- 
ciled to the church, and their orders being recognized, their 
archbishop and priests exercise their functions under the 
license of the missionaries. Thus the Padre here gives one 
of his Copt priests license to receive his own confession be- 
fore he makes it to him. They can say their privafe mass, 
(for which they use their own rite) ; but all other functions 
they use only at the express permission of the missionaries, 
(but this a temporary arrangement, I beheve, till a regular 
Coptic hierarchy is erected). 

"It is a small illustration," he continues, "of the absence 
of priggishness, and the great reality of their efforts, that 
the missionaries, though regulars, adopt the costume of the 
country and all its lawful customs. Without disparaging 
Protestant missionaries, who are said to be often devoted 
men, I cannot quite think that the efficacy of a white tie 
and a black coat, in converting the heathen, is so great as 
they seem to think ; nor that the exhibition of domestic 
fehcity, money, and Bibles, produces the same results, as 
self-denial, poverty, and celibacy, working systematically, 
and backed by all spiritual authority." 

This extract from Mr. Patterson's book reveals the sub- 
tilty of Romanism in its endeavors to proselyte the Copts ; 
but it makes a more alarming revelation of the subtilty of 
the Puseyite or High Church influence in the Church of 
England. One cannot overlook the sneer at the domestic 
example, and the social influence of a Protestant missionary 
an-d his family, nor the commendation of celibacy in con- 
nection with the statement that a solitary priest and a soli- 
tary nun are laboring together upon this field. The verging 
of Puseyism toward Monasticism, is one of its most danger- 
ous tendencies. The Monastic system and the Priesthood^ 
both separating from the people an order of men of reputed 
sanctity, and investing them with some special divine com- 



250 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

mission and authority, have corrupted the whole Christianity 
of the East, and have reduced these ancient churches to 
their present low state. Can these systems, or any thing 
that affiliates with them, revive these churches, and restore 
Christianity to its primitive purity ? I say it with all 
kindness of feeling toward the individual members of hierar- 
chical communions, but with the deepest and most earnest 
conviction, that Christianity cannot be revived in the East 
through a polity and forms that assimilate so nearly with 
those of these degenerate and decaying churches. 

The degeneracy of the Coptic church, and the facilities it 
offers to skilful proselyters from Rome, are illustrated by the 
following account of their church usages, given me by a 
priest. Some days after this incident at Girgeh, while 
walking through the bazaar in Manfaloot, on the Upper 
Nile, which was once the seat of a bishop, we met a tall, 
fine-looking Copt, whom we saluted, and who courteously 
invited us to sit upon a mat on a divan in front of a little 
shop, w^here another Copt was occupied in some manufac- 
ture. "We sent for our interpreter. While we were wait- 
ing, four priests ascended the minaret of a mosque near by, 
and from its balcony proclaimed the hour of evening prayer, 
crying with a prolonged, plaintive, wavering note, Al-la-liu 
Ahhar — " To God, the Great." Our new friend invited us 
to the church, and sent for two priests, with whom we held 
a long and interesting conversation. 

The building resembled those at Negadeh, but was some- 
what more profusely adorned with rude pictures, the subjects 
being Christ led to crucifixion,- the Virgin Mary, etc., all 
which were suspended in a row behind the pulpit. The 
amount of the priest's explanations of these pictures, was, 
that they are used as aids to prayer, (I suppose in the way 
of suggestion and emotion,) but that prayer is offered to 
God only. This is just the pretext that the Roman Catholic 



ITALIANS AND COPTS. 251 

makes for the use of images and relics, viz., to stimulate de- 
votional feelings. I inquired particularly as to membership 
in their churches, or terms of communion, and learned that 
all children of Coptic parents are baptized, the boys at forty 
days, and the girls at eighty. In all the observances of 
their church, much stress is laid upon days. Every Copt, as 
he grows up to years of knowledge, partakes of the Lord's 
Supper, but I could not learn at what age. I asked whether 
a grossly wicked man could come to the Lord's table ; the 
answer was, that the priest would take him under his in- 
struction for six months or more, until he thought him fit to 
partake of the sacrament. I asked whether being baptized 
and partaking of the sacrament, would suffice to take one to 
heaven, or whether there must be a good heart toward God 
and Christ ? He answered, that the future would depend 
upon our living rightly here, but we could n't tell any 
thing about that, and must leave it to God. It was evident 
that he had very vague notions of repentance and faith, 
and the religion of the heart, and he seemed perplexed 
and annoyed by the questions. I endeavored to ascertain 
the mode of training for the priesthood, and as far as I 
could make out, it is somewhat as follows : — A boy is taken 
into the service of the priest, to prepare his garments, 
arrange his books, wait upon him during the public worship, 
and in this way he is initiated into all the mysteries of the 
vestry and the vestments, and all the routine of days and ser- 
vices. He is also taught to read Coptic and Arabic. After 
being thus trained under the priest as an assistant, he goes 
to Cairo to be examined, and, if need be, further trained 
under persons appointed for this purpose by the Patriarch, 
and when approved, if thirty years of age, he is ordained to the 
office of priest. I could not learn that there was any proper 
biblical or theological training, nor any such qualification as 
we deem necessary for preaching the Gospel. I should 



252 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

infer that preaching holds a minor place in the Coptic ser- 
vice, and that it is chiefly liturgical and ceremonial, though I 
have not yet witnessed it, as I hope to do at Cairo. 

This priest was evidently ignorant, — he did not know the 
name of Athanasius] though I dare say he has often recited 
his creed. The Copts at Negadeh had never heard of him, 
nor did the Christians at Ekmim know the name of JSfes- 
torius, who died there, after sixteen years of banishment in 
the great oasis, by decree of the Council of Ephesus. 
Neither could I learn any thing of the whole number of 
Copts, and of Coptic churches in Egypt. There is not a 
newspaper or journal published in the whole country. 
There is no general post-oflice for the service of the public, 
and the people know only what is immediately around them. 
On the whole, I thought the priests at Manfaloot did not 
much relish our interview ; but our tall friend and others 
volunteered to go back wdth us to America. The 'peo'ph 
are open, though opposition must be looked for from the 
priests. It seems, too, that Mohammedans as well as Copts, 
are to some extent accessible to missionary efforts. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

OSIOOT, OR WOLF-TOWN THE OLD AND THE NEW — - 

A MODERN CEMETERY — SOLDIER MAKING — JOHN THE 
HERMIT. 

" Like gods, like people." Never was this adage more 
fully verified than in the old Ljcopolis, whose site we visit 
to-day. At Thebes we saw everywhere the ram-headed 
divinity promoted to special honor. In that city, and at 
other points on the Nile, the sheep was a sacred animal; it 
must not be killed for food, and when it died a natural death 
it must receive mummy honors. But here the wolf was 
sacred ; and as his wolfship saw no sanctity in a sheep, his 
worshippers imitated their god in devouring the innocent 
animal that was worshipped in a neighboring nome, where 
the wolf, its natural enemy, was hunted and slain. Our 
crew, catching the old spirit of the place, are clamorous for 
huchshish, in the form of a fat old ram ; and while they are 
enjoying the savory mess, we will go up and survey the town. 

Osioot is the present capital of Upper Egypt, and the 
residence of its governor, — the largest and best built town 
above Cairo on the Nile. Its situation is even more beauti- 
ful than that of Cairo ; and, except in extent, the view of 
the grand capital from the citadel does not surpass the view 
of Osioot from the mountains in the rear. The town is 
situated about two miles back from the present channel of 
the river, and is protected from inundation by massive 
dykes, which are ornamented with sycamores and acacias, 
22 



254 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

thus forming pleasant, shady avenues on all sides of the 
town ; while numerous gardens, with fragrant flowers and 
luxuriant vegetation, give to the entire suburbs an air of 
rural magnificence that cannot be rivalled in our cold and 
changeful climate. The town itself is built compactly, like 
all Egyptian towns, its population of twenty thousand being 
compressed into the space of a New England town of eight 
thousand. It is surrounded with walls, and divided into 
quarters, with their respective gates ; for here, as in the 
grand capital, all sects and nations are intermingled. It is 
computed that there are in Osioot a thousand Copt Chris- 
tians, and this is the see of a bishop of that ancient church. 

The bazaars exhibit almost as fine a display of goods as 
those of the capital; yet every thing is compressed into the 
smallest compass, the principle of an eastern merchant in 
this respect being the very opposite of that of a Broadway 
retailer. The minarets of Osioot are celebrated for their 
beauty ; but the tallest, which is most admired, did not meet 
my ideal of ethereal grace. It is too slender and contracts 
too suddenly for the best effect, and is suggestive of an 
elongated hay-pole. It is only here and there that you 
find a minaret of perfect proportions — for the present race 
have no architectural taste or skill ; — but a fine specimen 
of the minaret might furnish some good hints to an architect 
for the steeples of our village churches. The effect of the 
minarets of Osioot, as seen from the neighboring hill, is very 
beautiful : the whole town looks like one vast cathedral, with 
pointed towers rising at every angle ; and the general group- 
ing is highly picturesque. 

Osioot occupies the site of the ancient Lycopolis, the city 
where the wolf was held in special veneration, and where it 
received the rites of sepulture accorded to kings. No re- 
mains of the ancient city are to be found except a few mis- 
shapen blocks scattered here and there as door-stones in the 



OSIOOT, OR WOLF-TOWN. 255 

modern town. But the mountain is full of the tokens of the 
power and the wealth of the people that once ruled upon 
this soil. Here, as at Abydos, we see the wisdom and the 
taste of the ancient Egyptians in selecting the sites of their 
cities. A vast expanse of the richest soil, divided by the 
river, lies between two mountain ranges that widen their 
embrace to shield it from the desert, while northward and 
southward they close in around it, as a defence from human 
foes. The Lybian mountains, in the rear, and upon which 
the city abutted, were chosen as the place of burial ; and 
here we still find numerous tiers of excavated tombs, ex- 
tending even to the summit of the mountain, six hundred 
feet above the plain. These tombs, like those at Thebes, 
are chambers cut out of the solid rock, sometimes in 
the form of grand saloons with colonnades, sometimes a 
single arched hall, and sometimes a series of rooms conduct- 
ing far into the bowels of the mountain. Many of these 
bear marks of having been covered with paintings and 
sculptures, but these are now much defaced. There is little 
of ornament remaining to attract the traveller to the tombs 
of Lycopolis. But even in their dilapidated state, they 
serve to illustrate the wealth, the power, and the religion of 
ancient Egypt. These tombs were, for the most part, the 
property of private individuals, and are, therefore, a better 
standard of the wealth of the country, than are the tombs of 
priests and kings. 

This exponent of the ancient wealth of Egypt is the 
more striking, by contrast with the modern cemetery of 
Osioot. Just at the base of the mountain, and separated 
from the town by a canal and a dyke, is the present necrop- 
olis, which is reputed, to be the best in Egypt. But 
nothing can be more devoid of taste, of sentiment, of solem- 
nity, of beauty, or indeed of any feature of interest, than 
are the present cemeteries of Egypt. The exposure of the 



256 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

alluvial soil to inundation, the moisture of the soil itself, and 
the great value of all cultivable land in Egypt, leads of 
necessity to the occupation of a dry, sandy spot for burial 
purposes. The cemetery of Osioot is situated on the margin 
of the desert, and the waste of sand around it is only here 
and there relieved by shrubs of stinted growth. The tombs 
are of the coarsest material ; commonly a low arch of baked 
mud or mud-brick, raised two feet above the ground, and 
daubed over with a white plaster. Sometimes a little wall 
is raised around this, sometimes a dome, ten or fifteen feet 
high ; or if the tomb belongs to a sheik, it is built in the 
form of a dome, and large enough to admit of a few mats 
for the use of devotees who come ' to pray and to leave their 
votive offerings. But whatever may be the size or shape of 
the tomb, it is still the same mud wall covered w^ith white 
plaster. The only attempt at ornament is the scrawling of 
rude and fantastic figures in red and green paint, after the 
most approved toy-shop style. Nothing can exceed the dreari- 
ness of such a place. The cemetery is a thoroughfare for 
donkeys and cattle, as well as for men, and its tombs are often 
suffered to fall into decay. It is ea^y to understand how, in 
a warm climate, both lunatics and desperadoes could make 
such a place their abode ; but the glare of white plaster, and 
the daub of red and green paint, unrelieved by flower or 
foliage or fence or storied monument, I'enders it any thing but 
an inviting place for religious meditation. In this near con- 
trast of the modern cemeteries with the ancient catacombs 
of Egypt, we have a striking evidence of the decline of the 
country in its material prosperity. For while the modern 
resting-places of the dead, compared with the anc'ient, are 
the mud hovels of beggars as compared wath the palaces of 
kings, yet the incalculable difference between their re- 
spective outlays for the dead, is not in any way realized in 
the increased comfort of the livinoj. Labor is still at the 



OSIOOT, OR WOLF-TOWN. 257 

minimum for the support of human life ; and the modern 
cemetery shows not a wise economy, but the beggarly 
emptiness of a beggarly race. 

The Mohammedan Arab has the same disposition to adorn 
the tomb as had the native Egpytian ; but he lacks both the 
means and the capacity for doing this. The sacred wolves, 
fragments of whose mummies you may pick up in almost 
every tomb, had a more honored burial than the sainted 
sheik, not because the ancient Egyptian had more super- 
stition than the present occupant of the soil, but because 
with his superstition, he had more of wealth and power and 
genius to develop its conceptions into permanent and im- 
pressive forms. Superstition the most abject still reigns ; 
but the wealth has gone, and the power has gone and the 
genius has gone, and hence the grand and the beautiful are 
no more seen, but the rudely daubed mosque succeeds the 
massive sculptured temple, and the whitewashed mud sepul- 
chre succeedfithe palace-tomb. If the wolf and the " croco- 
dilo " are " finish," Egypt is finished too. Her kings are 
gone ; her wise men are gone ; her great men are gone ; her 
art is gone; her wealth is gone ; and a decrepit race. now 
squats upon her ruins. 

Of this a striking proof is given in the present art of 
soldier making. I have several times alluded to the impress- 
ment of recruits now going on in Egypt, as incidents con- 
nected with it have fallen under my notice, but having to- 
day seen at Osioot the whole reality of the thing, I will here 
collate its various incidents into one statement. 

The ambitious schemes of Mohammed Ali, the late Vice- 
roy of Egypt, demanded a native army disciplined upon the 
European model. He raised such an army by a forcible 
conscription throughout all Egypt, exhausting the strength 
of the country in his very endeavorS to augment its power. 
To a people of such strong domestic affections as have the 
22* 



258 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

common people of Egypt, and who had been accustomed to 
live quietly in their secluded villages of the Upper Nile, this 
being seized by force to fight battles to which\ they felt no 
call of patriotism or of self-protection, was a doom as 
horrible as death. No proclamation of. war, no newspaper, 
no popular convention set forth the necessity for the levying 
of troops ; Egypt has no such means of enlightening or of 
swaying the popular mind even in a bad cause ; — but of a 
sudden, a company of soldiers descending upon a village, 
would seize all the young and vigorous men and drag them 
off in chains to serve in the army of the Pasha. Hence 
thousands put out the right eye, in order to avoid the con- 
scription, and when the shrewd old tyrant formed a regiment 
of one-eyed men, they maimed their right hands also. Thus 
the levying of soldiers has become a terror in all Egypt. 
The system has been modified and made as reasonable as it 
can be in any country where a large standing army is re- 
quired for the purposes of a government in whj^h the people 
feel no interest. The present drafting is of persons between 
certain ages, and for the term of four years ; each village is 
required to furnish its quota, and an opportunity is given to 
select the men by lot. The pay of a soldier is seventy-five 
cents a month, with his board and clothing, both of much 
better quahty than those of the fellah, or peasant ; but life 
in the barracks takes away all personal liberty and domestic 
enjoyment, and after every modification, the old horror of 
the thing remains. 

We were first made aware of this state of things, by the 
reluctance of our crew to go on shore at certain villages 
where the recruiting officers chanced to be. Once the cook- 
boy, who had been sent for milk, came running to the boat 
without his jar, in great consternation, saying that an 
attempt had been malSe to seize him as a soldier. "We 
could have reclaimed him as our servant, but this would 



SOLDIER MAKING. 259 

have caused an embarrassing delay. At Keneh we saw a 
large number of respectable men, seated on the ground near 
the barracks, solemnly awaiting the issue of the lot that was 
to decide the fate of their sons, while the women hung 
around in groups, Avhose consternation would soon give 
place to frantic wailing. It was truly an aiFecting scene. 

At Thebes we found the mountains filled with the 
peasantry who had fled thither from the conscription, while 
the passes were guarded by soldiers, on the watch for any 
straggler who might venture out for food. But women, and 
children contrived to smuggle food to the refugees, who kept 
up a constant watch, and who fled at the approach of 
strangers. We came suddenly one day upon a concourse 
of these poor people, who, mistaking us for their pursuers, 
at first made a show of resistance, and then huddled them- 
selves more closely into the tombs. 

A vender of antiques offered me a lot, for which I made 
him a bid, leaving the decision until the following day. 
Next day an elderly neighbor presented himself to say, 
that in the night the mummy-merchant had been seized and 
carried off as a soldier, and that his son would not venture 
out for fear of a like fate. 

At one point on the river, I saw a large boat loaded with 
men, chained together three and three by the neck, and an 
armed guard standing over them. These were recruits for 
the army, bound to Cairo. At two or three places on the 
river, the Copts begged us to intercede with the govern- 
ment not to take th^ir sons as soldiers to be mixed with 
Mussulmen in all the corruptions of the camp. One venera- 
ble man was so grief-stricken at the seizure of his son, that 
he proposed to go with us to America. 

I have already mentioned the horrible incident near Gir- 
geh, where a woman was shot dead for attempting to hinder 
the impressment of her brother. But at Osioot the whole 



260 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

effect of the impressment was spread before us. As we 
approached the town, the loud wailing and screaming of 
women reached our ears ; and presently we met a mounted 
officer followed by a foot-guard, dragging a few recruits 
bound with ropes and chains ; and these surrounded by 
wives, mothers, and sisters, their faces and breasts smeared 
over with dung in token of their grief, to which they gave 
vent in heart-rending lamentations. On the top of the 
mountain this wail continued to pierce our ears, as new 
parties were dragged along the various roads. When we 
entered the town we found the bazaars almost deserted, 
and business suspended, while around the governor's palace 
were thousands of women screaming, wailing, smiting their 
breasts, tearing their hair, covering themselves with filth, 
and making every demonstration of grief, which the recruit- 
ing officers in vain attempted to drown with the noise of 
drums. The whole town was astir, and long after we left 
it we heard the cry of anguish with which the land of 
Egypt gives birth to an army. 

The mountains back of Osioot were the abode of hermits, 
during the reign of the Byzantine emperors. One of these, 
from his oracular dignity in state affairs, is somewhat noted 
in history. Describing the superstition of Theodosius, Gib- 
bon informs us, that " before he performed any decisive reso- 
lution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will 
of heaven ; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced 
the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyp- 
tian monk, who possessed, in the opnion of the age, the 
gift of miracles and knowledge of futurity. Eutropius, one 
of the favorite oracles of the palace of Constantinople, em- 
barked for Alexandria, from whence he sailed up the Nile 
as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves, in the remote 
province of Thebais. In the neighborhood of the city and 
on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy John had con- 



JOHN THE HEUMIT 261 

structed witli his own hand an humble cell, in which he 
dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door, without 
seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food 
that had been prepared with fire, or any human art. 
Five days of the week he spent in prayer and meditation; 
but on Saturdays and Sundays he regularly opened a 
small window and gave audience to the crowd of suppliants 
who successively flowed from every part of the Christian 
world. The eunuch of Theodosius approached the window 
with respectful steps, proposed his questions concerning the 
event of the civil war, and soon returned with a favorable 
oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the 
assurance of a bloody but infallible victory." 

When I ascended this mountain and looked out from its 
now empty tombs upon one of the richest and most beauti- 
ful plains in all the valley of the Nile, and from its summit 
saw the Lybian desert spreading hke a sea to the western 
horizon, I felt that no spot could have been selected more 
favorable to such a life as those old hermits led. The 
tombs had nothing of the atmosphere of a modern sepulchre. 
The rocks in which they are hewn, like those at Thebes, 
have no soil, and therefore no vegetation to dampen them ; 
they are a dry, clean limestone, that yields readily under 
the chisel, and .yet that changes little with time in a climate 
where there is no rain. The tombs themselves are spacious 
chambers, and they range from two hundred to five hun- 
dred feet above the surface of the plain, being hewn fre- 
quently in the very clefts of the rocks, and difficult of access 
to one not skilled in climbing. Here the recluse would find 
security in his solitude ; the mountains and the desert would 
favor his more sombre meditations, while the plain would at 
once supply his simple wants, and suggest to him the kindlier 
associations of humanity. 

On the very top of the mountain I found the remains of a 



262 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

crude brick hut, wliicli may liave been the abode of the 
oracular John. In such a spot, amid such associations, one 
is perj^lexed to knbw whether was better, the old religion 
that built these tombs in the belief of a future 'state and of 
the transmigration of souls, and embalmed the wolves whose 
remains I found scattered among them, — or the religion 
that converted them into the chapels of stuccoed saints and 
the cells of oracular hermits ; or the religion that, despising 
alike the worship of idols and of pictures, has desecrated 
both the wolf's tomb and the hermit's cell, and, in the faith 
of the anchorite warrior of Mecca, now rears its lofty mina- 
rets upon the plain, proclaiming with each returning hour 
of prayer, " La illali iV Allah — There is no deity but God." 
A religion whose patron saint was a mounted warrior in 
mortal combat with a dragon, and whose imperial patron 
and professor would send his ministers of state fifteen hun- 
dred miles to take counsel of a pulse-dried cynic in his 
mountain cell, had not the spiritual life to withstand the tor- 
rent of fanaticism that in the beginning of the seventh cen- 
tury swept over Egypt from Arabia. 



CHAPTER XXXTII. 

ANTIQUITY OF ART AND SCIENCE — TRITE ANTIQUITY 
OF EGYPT. 

We read of the golden age of art. "When was it? The 
Augustan age ? The age of Pericles ? 

There was a golden age of letters too. When ? Was it 
when art and letters and science reached a high develop- 
ment, if not perfection, and were under the patronage of all 
the wealthy and the great ? — when the rich planned how 
best to adorn their palaces, and monarchs put in requisition 
all human skill for their temples and their tombs ? Then 
had art and science a golden age long before Augustus or 
Pericles — before Rome or Greece was born. 

In proof of this, I would adduce the tombs at Beni-Has- 
san, on the Lower Nile. These have been famous, from the 
conjecture that one of them was the temporary tomb of 
Joseph, and that a scene upon its walls represented the 
arrival in Egypt of Jacob and his sons. This picture, which 
is about eight feet long hj two feet in width, represents a 
family of emigrants, who come with presents, having with 
them women, children, baggage, asses — the very prototype 
of the- present race of donkeys — also weapons and instru- 
ments of music. Champollion mistook them for Greeks, 
and some have supposed them to be the brethren of Joseph. 
But this has been disproved, by the discovery from the hiero- 
glyphics, that the tomb is much older than the time of 



2G4: EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Joseph, and older than any at Thebes, as is true of most of 
the sepulchral grottos at this point. 

Here, then, is the place to study ancient Egyptian art. 
To my amazement, I found one tomb some two hundred 
feet above the level of the river, almost a Doric temple, 
hewn from the solid rock. Before it is a portico, supported 
by two pillars, of an order almost identical with the Doric, 
and which must have suggested that; while within is a 
chamber some thirty feet square, its roof' supported also by 
four columns of the same order. This chamber was cut 
from the solid rock with perfect precision ; no modern 
square, or line and plummet could make it more true. The 
doorway is in exact mathematical and "artistic proportions, 
both with itself and with the chamber. 

Li making the original excavation, the pillars were left 
in rough masses, and were afterwards trimmed down each 
to the same form and dimensions. What skill was requisite 
for this, when a single miscalculation, or a false blow of 
the chisel would have ruined irreparably the whole excava- 
tion ! A broken column in a building may be restored ; but 
in an excavation, no such injury could be repaired. The 
walls were then trimmed down and prepared to receive the 
frescoes. Some of these are executed with great delicacy 
and taste. Here is a picture of a bird about the size of a 
canary, which though painted more than thirty-five hundred 
years ago, is quite fresh in color, and which is as perfect in 
outline, in proportion, and in finish, as most frescoes of 
modern times. It will compare favorably with the famous 
Mosaic of the cat and the bird from Pompeii, now in the 
Museo Bourbonico at Naples. There are pictures, also, in 
which perspective is introduced, so that animals and men 
appear in groups behind each other in their true propor- 
tions. Fish are admirably drawn. Several wrestling scenes 
exhibit fine muscular action. Various games and feats of 



ANTIQUITY OF ART AND SCIENCE. 265 

agility are introduced ; also, hunting scenes. Agriculture, 
working in glass, in gold, in clay, and in flax — all the com- 
mon trades, and the arts of painting and statuary, are here 
depicted. The principal failure of the artist, is in the 
representation of trees and flowers, and in the perspective 
of landscapes. 

Who made these tombs ? Barbarians ? Infants ? Or men 
of genius in a golden age of art ? Who paid for such works? 
These were not the tombs of kings, but of private persons — 
the inhabitants of the city of Nus, that once stood upon the 
opposite bank of the river. Was not that a golden age, in 
which wealth flowed in such channels? Did not Egypt 
teach Greece and Rome ? Diodorus acknowledges that the 
Greeks derived from the Egyptians much of their mythology 
respecting Hades and the future state. We have already 
seen that the idea of Charon and his boat was suggested by 
the practice of ferrying the dead across the Nile, and by 
the sacred lake, to their tombs in the mountains. Greek 
poetry was Egyptian fact. The Greeks borrowed in art as 
well as in theology. The golden ages of Greece and Rome 
derived much of their splendor from the prior golden age 
of Egypt. 

Though the tradition of the foundation of Attica by an 
Egyptian colony, led by Cecrops, is not confirmed by au- 
thentic history, yet the fact that before the. conquests of 
Alexander, Egypt had become the resort of the scholars of 
Greece, that her poets, her historians, her philosophers, her 
astronomers, and her mathematicians resorted to Hehopolis, 
as the scholars of our time resort to Oxford and to Berlin, 
and the fact that after the foundation of Alexandria, the 
treasures of classic Greece herself, found in Egypt an asy- 
lum from the decay of luxury and the desolation of war, 
are proof of the intimate relations between the two coun- 
tries, and of the influence of Egyptian civilization upon the 
23 



266 EGYPT, PAST AND PESSENT. 

civilization of Attica. The extraordinary impulse given to 
tlie arts of architecture and of statuary in Greece, from tlie 
middle of the seventh century before Christ, when Egypt, 
" which until then had been jealously closed against foreign 
settlers, was thrown open for permanent and friendly inter- 
course to the Greeks," argues, — as even the advocates of 
an independent Greek development are constrained to 
admit, — that at least " the Greek artists there became ac- 
quainted with various technical processes, with which the 
Egyptians had long been familiar, and that, by this fortunate 
assistance, Greek art at once advanced from a state of com- 
parative rudeness, to a level with that of Egypt."* 

It was not for nought that Homer, Thales, Solon, Pythag- 
oras, Hecatasas, Herodotus, Plato, Eudoxus, Euclid, Dio- 
nysius, and many others of the distinguished sons of 
Greece, resorted to Egypt for travel and for study, some of 
them residing there for years in the universities under the 
care of the priests. Greek artists, also, went to study in 
Egypt, as modern artists in Italy.f 

Rude, stiiF, and even grotesque, as many of the old 
Egyptian monuments appear, because of the religious and 
conventional forms to Avhich the artists were obliged to 
adhere, there are yet traces of the grand and the beautiful, 
of a chaste and severe simplicity, and of a refined and deli- 
cate taste, worthy of the esthetic atmosphere of Greece. 
" The vases of the Egyptians frequently bear so strong a 
resemblance to those of Greece, that we might feel dis- 
posed to consider them borrowed from Greek models, did 
not their known antiquity forbid such a conclusion ; and 
many have mistaken the ornamental devices attached to 
them, and to other fancy works of Egyptian art, for the 
productions of Greek sculptors. Now that we are ac- 

* Schmitz, History of Greece, p. 172. f Wilkinson, iii. 166. 



TRUE ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. 267 

quainted with the dates of the Egyptian monuments, the 
square border and scrolls so common on Athenian, Sicihan, 
Etruscan, and Grtsco-Italian vases, are shown to be, from 
the most remote time, among the ordinary devices on cups, 
and the ceilings of tombs, at Thebes and other places ; and 
the graceful curve of the Egyptian cornice, which, not con- 
fined to architecture, is repeated on vases, and numerous 
articles of furniture, was evidently adopted for the same 
ornamental purpose by the Greeks." * 

There can be no question, that not only the material arts 
of civilized life, but the fine arts also, attained in Egypt a 
high state of development long before the era of the arts in 
Greece ; for when, after Psammetichus had raised himself 
to the throne by the help of Greek mercenaries, Egypt was 
thrown open to the Greeks, Egyptian art was already in 
its decline, and-it was soon after prostrated by the Persian 
invasion, which not only marred the temples on the soil, 
but also transported the artists of the Mle to the banks of 
the Euphrates, and there compelled them to record upon 
their own mutilated statues the triumphs of their con- 
querors. 

Humboldt recognizes a grand " epoch of human civiliza- 
tion in the valley of the Nile," centuries before its trans- 
mission to Greece. Indeed, he regards this as the earUest 
development of civilization, a " national cultivation," which 
was " early awakened and arbitrarily modelled, owing to the 
mental requirements of the people, the peculiar physical 
character of the country, and its hierarchical and political 
institutions." 

The vast resources of the Nile valley, and its isolated 
position between tv/o mountain ranges and outlying deserts, 
not only contributed to, but almost necessitated, the early 

* WUkinson, iii. 88. 



268 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

development of civilization. The enormous productiveness 
of the country is shown by the fact, that even after the 
desolation of successive conquests, it continued to be, as of 
old, the granary of the world. " Even after it had become 
a Roman province, Egypt continued to be the seat of im- 
mense wealth, for the increased luxury of Rome, under the 
Csesars, reached to the territory of the Nile, and turned to 
the universal commerce of Alexandria for the chief means 
of its satisfaction." * Under the last and most indolent of 
the Ptolemies, the revenue of Egypt is said to have 
amounted to twelve millions of dollars. f This vast indi- 
genous wealth of Egypt was expended in national works, 
and hence the rapid progress of the nation in the physical 
sciences and the mechanic arts. Egyptian art, as seen in 
writing and in sculpture, is as old as the history of the 
nation. 

At this point, a learned scepticism sets up a claim for the 
remote antiquity of the nation, prior to its known history ; — 
what Bunsen styles a period of Origines, and Lepsius of 
"development." The existence of language and of a 
mythology, says Bunsen, demand a j)receding era of pro- 
gress. Lepsius, after placing Menes at least 3900 b. c, and 
the pyramids only five hundred years later, remarks, that 
" a thousand years at least, and probably still more, must be 
conjectured for the gradual growth of a civilization which 
had been completed, and had in part begun to degenerate, 
at least 3430 b. c." Humboldt follows Lepsius in this. J 
Gibbon, as we have seen, attempts to turn this alleged 
necessity of a long series of improvements against the 
chronological data of the Hebrew Scriptures. 

This argument proceeds upon the assumption, that man 
began his existence in a state of infancy, and was left to the 

* Kosmos 11, 171. t Gibbon. | Kosmos 11, 144. 



TRUE ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. 269 

unassisted development of his own powers. But this as- 
sumption is whoilj gratuitous. The Book of Genesis, con- 
fessedly the most ancient writing in the world, and which, 
as Buusen says, has no appearance of exaggerating its own 
antiquity, represents man as introduced into the world by 
the Creator, in the maturity of his powers, and as started 
upon his career by the specific instruction and counsels of 
Jehovah. Now, without insisting upon the historic truth of 
this narrative, it is enough that we take this as a possible 
theory of the origin of man. We have as good a right in 
logic and in fact, to this theory, as the savans referred to 
have to "the opposite theory. Indeed, with the document in 
our favor, we challenge them to disprove it. This theory 
offsets their theory of development, and imtil it is disproved 
from scientific or historical data, it is a siifficient answer to 
their ohjectio7is. Assuming this to have been the true origin 
of man, there was no need of interminable ages for his 
development; and the children of men who built the ark 
and the tower of Babel, could build Thebes, Memphis, and 
the pyramids, within the time which the chronology of the 
Septuagint allows between the flood and the era of these 
monuments. In the fourth chapter of Genesis, mention is 
made of the invention of instruments of music, and of arti- 
ficers in brass and iron ; and the building of the ark shows 
what progress had been made in the mechanic arts by the 
time of Noah. Of course, the arts known before the flood 
were preserved in the family of Noah, and were transmitted 
by them to their posterity. The immediate descendants of 
Noah built cities, and founded mighty empires. The men 
of Shinar knew how to build stupendous fabrics of brick 
and mortar. If, then, we receive the Book of Genesis as 
a true history of the antediluvian world, all the data 
necessary to account for the early development of art in 
Egypt, and for its stupendous monuments, are given in 
23* 



270 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

that book, and we have no occasion for a fabulous era of 
Origines. 

The theory that the human race began its existence at the 
lowest stage of barbarism, is neither demanded nor war- 
ranted by any known facts. There is no evidence that a 
state of- barbarism is the normal condition of man. On the 
contrary, the evidence is rather that barbarism, wherever 
found, is a decline from a previous state of civilization. In 
most uncivilized countries there are traces of a religious 
knowledge superior to the prevailing superstitions of the 
people, and in many also there are monuments of art, which 
are as great a mystery to the present inhabitants, as are the 
monuments of ancient Egypt to the Arab fellahs now upon 
her soil. Progress is not the invariable law of the human 
race. We witness deterioration and decay in Greece, in 
Rome, in Egypt, in Palestine, in Assyria, in India. With 
respect to his capacity for development, man may have stood 
higher at the creation than he stood at the flood, because in 
nearer sympathy with that spiritual truth and hfe, that give 
strength, beauty, energy, and symmetry to all intellectual 
activities. At all events, the Mosaic account of the early 
state of mankind will stand as a theory against the theory 
of barbarism urged by savans, until they upon whom rests 
the burden of proof, make good their objections. 

In his latest announcements, Lepsius settles upon 3893 
B. c. as the era of Menes, which was five hundred and forty- 
nine years before the commonly received era of the flood. 
But Bunsen makes the era of Menes 3643 b. c, more than 
two hundred years later. Poole, as we have seen, has de- 
monstrated from the monuments and from astronomical data, 
that Menes cannot date further back than 2717 b. c. ; still 
three hundred and seventy-three years before the flood, 
according to Usher and the Hebrew text. But if we follow 
Dr. Hales and the Septuagint, and place the deluge 3155 



I 



TRUE ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT 271 

B. c, we then have four hundred and thirtj-eight years for 
the development of art in Egypt before Menes, and in a 
country and cKmate that highly favored, if indeed they did 
not necessitate, such a development. Then, if with Hales 
we fix the creation at 5411 b. c, we have more than twelve 
hundred years additional to answer the purpose of Bunsen's 
preliminary period of Origines ; and these dates we assunie 
not arbitrarily, but on the authority of the oldest version 
from the Hebrew Scriptures, which, for aught we know, 
may have followed the numbers of the original text more 
strictly than do the later copies of the Hebrew. The great 
antiquity of Egyptian art, therefore, while on the one hand 
it illustrates and confirms the frequent allusions to arts in 
the books of Moses, upon the other, does not invalidate 
the historic testimony of those same books as to the com- 
paratively recent origin, and the rapid increase and develop- 
ment of the human family. The most admiring Egyptologist 
may, at the same time, be a most implicit believer in the 
historic verity of the books of Moses. Half- a century ago, 
Dr. Chalmers boldly declared, that " the writings of Moses 
do not fix the antiquity of the globe ; " and the geological 
discussions of the last fifty years have proved, that the fear 
of Christians lest the speculations of geologists should under- 
mine our faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures, was a 
" false alarm." Our faith in the Mosaic cosmogony is not at 
all disturbed by the recent declaration of Hugh Miller, that 
new facts of geology, scientifically determined, now demand 
a new scheme of reconciliation for geology and the Mosaic 
record. Even so with the antiquity of art, and with the 
monumental records of Egypt. Let us give place to no 
false alarm for the word of God. The writings of Moses 
do not fix the chronology of the primeval history of man. 

As the positive influence of Egypt upon Greece has been 
underrated, I adduce at length the views of the distin- 
guished Lepsius. 



272 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

" The distinguisliecl series of celebrated men who are said 
to have carried Egyptian wisdom to the Greeks, begins as 
early as the mythical times. Danaus brought the first germ 
of higher civilization from Egypt to Argos, and Erectheus, 
king of Athens, was considered by some an Egyptian, and 
taught the Eleusinian mysteries according to the manner of 
tlM3 Egyptians. The holy singers of antiquity, Orpheus, 
Musa3us, Melampus, and Eumolpus, thence acquired their 
theological wisdom ; and even to Homer himself, Egypt 
may not have been unknown. The most ancient artists of 
Greece, Dasdalus, Telecles, and Theodoras, are said to 
have educated themselves in this land of primeval art, and 
to have employed the Egyptian canon of proportions. 
Lycurgus and Solon introduced into their father-land all the 
wise regulations they became acquainted with ; and Herod- 
otus, especially, tells us that the Egyptian laws relating to 
the surveying of the land, by which every one was obliged 
to declare to the monarch his annual revenue, were trans- 
ferred to Athens by Solon, and were in use even in his 
time. Cleobulus, the son of Lindus, is said also to have 
visited Egypt. It signifies little how much historical foun- 
dation there is for these accounts. The general direction 
taken by tradition, with reference to it, proves even more 
than separate facts could do, the early and late general uni- 
versal recognition of Egyptian wisdom. It was considered 
a glory to participate in it. 

" But Egypt was especially regarded as a university for 
philosophy, and for all that could be gained through science 
and learning. We therefore see philosophers, mathemati- 
cians, physicians, historians, resorting to Egypt, each emu- 
lating with the other, and studying for many years under 
Egyptian teachers. The houses in Heliopolis in which 
Plato and the mathematician Eudoxus had lived for thir- 
teen years, were still shown to Strabo. The observatory of 



TRUE ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT. 273 

Eudoxus, in wliich he is said to have made certain observa- 
tions of the stars, and on Canobus in particular, bore his 
name in the time of Strabo. Even Thales was instructed 
by the Egyptian priests, and as it is expressly said, had be- 
sides them no other teachers. Here he became acquainted 
with the division of the year into seasons, and into three 
hundred and sixty-five days ; and here, also, he learnt how 
to take the measurement of high objects, such as the pyra- 
mids by their shadow, at a particular hour of the day. 
Archimedes invented his celebrated water screw in Egypt, 
and there applied it in the establishments which were de- 
voted to the irrigation of the land. Pythagoras was a long 
time in Egypt, and all that we know concerning the dogmas 
of this influential man agrees with this account. His doc- 
trine of the immortality of the soul, especially, is very 
decidedly referred by Herodotus to Egypt. And it is in 
fact now sufficiently known from the monuments, that the 
Egyptians possessed from the earliest times very distinct 
ideas about the transmigration of souls, and of judgment 
after death. The philosophers, Anaxagorus, Democritus, 
Sphterus, the mathematician Oinopides, the physician Chry- 
sippus, also Alcaeus and Euripides, are enumerated among 
the visitors to Egypt. Finally, the same is known of Heca- 
teus, Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo, and many less celebrated 
Greeks."* 

* Letters, Bohn, p. 383. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



CLIMATE OF THE NILE A CHAPTER FOR INVALIDS. 

The great benefit whicli, through the blessing of God, I 
have myself experienced from the effect of travel in more 
genial climates upon a pulmonic or a bronchial affection, in- 
duces me to record some notes of climate, taken upon the 
way, for the use of other invalids. A change of climate 
should be very early tried in pulmonary complaints, and 
should be persisted in long enough to influence the entire 
constitution. When resorted to by the consumptive as a last 
expedient, a change of climate is of little avail. It is com- 
monly to leave the comforts and the sympathies of home, to 
die among strangers. But better counsels are beginning to 
prevail ; and possibly these few suggestions may not be 
without their value, to some who are struggling with insidi- 
ous disease. 

If I may venture an unprofessional opinion - — the result 
of some observation and experience in pulmonary diseases — 
it is, that so far as the mere breathing is concerned, it 
matters little what is the quality of the atmosphere (if it is 
not vitiated) whether mioist or dry, cold or hot. The effect 
of atmospheric changes upon the skin and upon the general 
tone of the system, is even more to be dreaded than their 
direct action upon the throat or lungs. In such diseases, 
the all-important thing is to keep up the tone of the system, 
and especially to do this, if possible, w^ithout the use of 
medicines or of high stimulants. The air being the vital- 



II 



CLIMATE OF THE NILE. 275 

izer of the blood, a person of a consumptive habit, or in the 
incipient stages of the disease, should live as much as possi- 
ble in the open air, merely guardmg against taking cold 
from sudden changes of temperature, or from exposure to 
currents of air. The air is the proper nutriment of the 
lungs, and if inhaled habitually through the nostrilsy and 
not through the mouth there is little danger that even at 
a very low rate of temperature it will injure the lungs by 
simple contact. 

Nor can I j)erceive that the presence of moisture in the 
atmosphere is, in itself, detrimental to the lungs. Having 
spent three months in England in the fall of the year, 
including the damp month of November in London, I can 
testify that the climate of England is not unfavorable for 
pulmonary mvalids from the United States, Indeed, I 
found a sojourn in England conducive in every way to the 
restoration of health and strength. The reason of this is, 
that while there is a superabundance of moisture in the 
atmosphere, the temperature is comparatively equable, and 
there are few great or sudden changes. And, besides this, 
knowing himself to be in a moist climate, one naturally pro- 
vides himself with warm clothing ; while in English houses 
there is every facility for a cheerful fire whenever this is 
needed. Moreover the tone of the climate there admits of 
a generous diet, which, above all things, is the antidote to 
such diseases ; for it is through the general tone of the sys- 
tem, and the improved quality of the blood, that these are to 
be reached, rather than by specific local applications. Me- 
chanical and dietetic treatment, — friction, gymnastics, out- 
door exercise, cold water, good living, — these are the 
requisites, rather than the medication of any " school." I 
must say, then, though it be contrary to the books, that 
jaunting in England, roaming free and joyous amid its ever 
diversified and ever beauteous scenes, and partaking of its 



276 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

substantial comforts, is a good thing for pulmonic com- 
plaints, — the mist and the rain notwithstanding. Besides, 
England is not all mist and rain, but has its bright skies 
and its sweet sunshine. 

The climate of Paris is good, though having, perhaps, 
greater extremes both of heat and of cold than the average 
climate of England. In the main, the air of Paris is 
remarkably clear, pure, and genial ; but, at times, a dense, 
chilling fog arises from the Seine, that flows through the 
heart of the citj, and the Parisian houses are not arranged, 
and the Parisians are not accustomed, to resist this by a 
good cheerful fire. An invalid may do well in Paris, if he 
selects a house that has the convenience of a fireplace, or is 
with a family somewhat Americanized. 

Travelling over the mountains of Switzerland for a 
month, I found the bracing influence of mountain air and 
of pedestrian exercise counteracted by the extremes of tem- 
perature, which sometimes extended over forty degrees in 
twenty-four hours. It was summer and winter, melting 
heat and freezing cold, in the course of each day's march. 
For health, it were better to visit Switzerland in July and 
August, than in September and October ; though the gran- 
deur of the mountains, and the glory of the sky, are en- 
hanced in the latter months. 

The climate of Rome is strongly recommended by physi- 
cians for pulmonary comj)laints ; and Rome is a favorite 
resort of invalids from England and the United States, 
because, besides a good, clear, balmy air, they may there 
find intelligent society and a continual fund of amusement. 
But there is one important qualification respecting the cli- 
mate of Rome. While in the same exposure there is little 
variation of temperature, and while the atmosphere is 
remarkably still, yet in different parts of the city the tem- 
perature varies so as to expose an invalid to taking cold 



CLIMATE OF THE NILE. 277 

whenever he goes out. For example, you walk upon the 
Pincio in a bright sun and a fresh balmy air, and feel all 
the exhilaration of a new life ; you come down the long 
flight of steps at the Piazza di Spagna and descend to the 
Gorso^ and it is like going into a vault ; or you ride out in 
an open carriage along the Appian way, and bask in the 
sun without the walls ; but returning, you must plunge into 
narrow, sunless streets, and feel the chill of winter. You 
pace a street running east and west, and on its sunny side 
you find the most genial September; you turn the corner 
of a street running north and south, and encounter the keen 
wind of December from mountains of snow. A tolerable 
safeguard against this is a Spanish cloak, which may be 
thrown off and on, made light or heavy at pleasure. Rome 
is a good place for a pulmonary invalid, if he is very careful 
not to catch cold j for, as I have said before, it is not the 
contact of the air with the lungs by breathing , but its contact 
with the shin, checking perspiration or imparting a sudden 
chill, that is most to be feared. Let the invalid keep thor- 
oughly warm, and the coldness or humidity of the atmo- 
sphere are of little account. But the climate of Kome is 
comparatively warm and dry. Yet it is not well for an 
invalid to settle down in any place with other invalids, 
where health is the absorbing topic of thought and of con- 
versation. 

Nice does not enjoy its former reputation as a winter 
resort for invalids. While in the main its skies are balmy- 
and its atmosphere is bland, it sometimes feels chill wintry 
blasts from the mountains, and its streets are sometimes 
covered with as vile a posh as ever tested Goodyear's 
patent gum elastics on Broadway. 

A better place is Mentone, some three hours east of Nice, 
along the Riviera, a pleasant village facing the sea, and 
nestling so closely under the lee of the mountains, that it is 
24 



278 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

completely shielded from north winds, and enjoys an equa- 
ble temperature. Its accommodations are as yet indiffer- 
ent, but arrangements are making to improve them. This 
is a cheap as well as healthful resort. 

Naples is a favorite winter residence of the English, and 
its climate is one of the loveliest in the world. It has the 
di^awbacks incident to a proximity to the sea ; but is, on the 
whole, quite favorable to pulmonary invalids. 

Malta has a very uniform climate, and it is highly 
recommended by physicans; but when I was there the 
sky was remarkably addicted to sudden and drenchmg 
showers, and the atmosphere was often humid ; yet there 
was no room in the hotel that admitted of any other fire 
than a warming-pan of charcoal. One might do well in 
Malta if he should get into fit quarters ; but after all, 
as the old lady said of her one room, it is " too narrow- 
contracted for any thing." You can explore the whole 
island in three days, and then — where are you? With 
little to divert the mind, just planning to talie care of your 
health. 

The climate of Upper Egypt is uniformly dry. In more 
than two months I did not see a drop of rain in Egypt, 
except at Alexandria on the sea-coast. Yet this was the 
season for rain. It is as true now as it was twenty-five 
hundred years ago, that in Egypt there is no rain. Were 
it not for the Nile, which is fed by rains in the mountains 
far to the south, the whole land would become a desert, like 
that adjoining the ancient Pelusiac branch of the river now 
dried away. But the Nile climate, that is directly upon the 
river, is not uniformly dry. In the Delta very heavy dews 
fall, so that in the morning the deck of the boat, and the 
fields along the banks, are as wet as if there had been show- 
ers by night ; and sometimes a dense fog arises from the 
river. On the Upper Nile, however, these phenomena are 
seldom witnessed. 



A CHAPTER FOR INVALIDS. 279 

But tlie temperature of the river is very variable — 
sometimes passing through a thermometrical range of 30^^ 
in twenty-four hours, and it is often quite cold. This is a 
fact that invalids should be advised of before setting out on 
this long voyage, so that they may provide suificient clothing 
and bedding. For the want of the latter our party suffered 
much from Alexandria to Cairo, and I took the most horri- 
ble cold I ever had. As the Nile boats are built for warm 
weather, the only provision the traveller can make against 
cold is by increased clothing. We hired a furnished boat ; 
and as during our stay in Alexandria the thermometer had 
ranged at 60*^ by night, and we were about to travel south- 
ward, it never occurred to us that a blanket and a thin 
coverlet apiece would not be a sufficient covering. But 
when the thermometer stood at 38° at sunrise, we realized 
our mistake-; and I hereby caution all Nile voyagers to 
look well to their bedding. I exposed the thermometer 
daily in the open air, apart from sun or current, at sunrise, 
at two P. M., and at sunset. A few extracts from the regis- 
ter will serve to show the variations. 



Jan. 17, in the Delta, 


44 


68° 61° 


" 19, dense fog, 


45 


70 61 


" 20, 


49 


64 63 


" 21, near Cairo, 


38 


67 64 


" 26, south wind, 


46 


62 


Feb. 3, latitude 28, 


56 


76 72 


" 5, 


62 


67 68 


« 8, latitude 27, 


48. 


64 64 


" 9, 


54 


64 62 


" 13, latitude 26, 


56 


80 and 112 in the sun. 


" 14, 


60' 


82 80 


" 18, 


52 


81 71 


" 20, Thebes, 


64 


88 88 



In March, the thermometer ranged from 50° to 70°, as 
we descended the river, against a strong north wind. 

These variations are due in part to winds and in part to 



280 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

different positions of the boat, as under the lee of a moun- 
tain, or on the margin of a heated plain ; but thej are such 
variations as the traveller must experience. The lowest 
temperature marked was 38° at sunrise, and the highest 
88° at noon and at sunset, a variation of 50° in one month. 
The greatest variation in one day was from 38° to 67°, or 
29° in six hours. 

The air of the Upper Nile is to be recommended for its 
dryness, its softness, its purity, and its general warmth. 
But the great secret of the benefit of the Nile voyage does 
not lie in the climate, but in the fact that in such a climate, 
with such sunlight, and among the palms, the voyager lives 
listlessly, and with such navigation can diversify ^jjiis exer- 
cise and amusements, from the boat to the shore and from 
the shore to the boat, as he pleases. Our dragoman, to be 
sure, a native Egyptian, had the most exalted idea of the 
virtues of the climate. He prophesied that the climate of 
the Nile would cure all manner of ailments, of which our 
party of four presented at least as many varieties in head, 
throat, stomach, and limbs. Once, when a sailor had injured 
his knee by a fall and a contusion of the cap, the dragoman 
gravely assured us it would not hurt him, for though in 
England such a fall might have broken his leg and laid him 
up for weeks, in this climate it would only give him a little 
bruise ! 

After all, what an invalid needs, is not so much a change 
of climate^ as a change, — the complete diversion of his mind 
from himself, freedom from care, — the opportunity and the 
temptation to enjoy life as life. For this, travel in foreign 
lands is preeminently desirable. A man of business, or a 
professional man, cannot get away from care so long as he 
is within reach of railroads and newspapers. But in foreign 
lands, among new scenes and strange people, he will find 
continual diversion. Travel is the great specific. While 



A CHAPTER FOR INVALIDS. 281 

one is able to travel, let him do this rather than settle in one 
place, however much recommended by physicians. For the 
Nile voyage, get a good boat ; make it comfortable ; have it 
well stocked with provisions suited to your constitution and 
the climate ; select good company ; have a few choice books ; 
saunter out on shore as you have opportunity ; give your- 
self up to your present surroundings ; and maintain a daily, 
peaceful walk with God ; and if not the heartiest, you will 
be the happiest man alive. 

Since recording my own independent observations upon 
the climate of the Nile valley, I have read with much inter- 
est the observations of Mr. Kenrick on the same point, and 
for the satisfaction of my readers will repeat them here. 

" The climate of Egypt is very little subject to the varia- 
tions of more northern regions, or even of those adjacent to 
it in position, but less uniform in surface, as Syria. The 
mean annual temperature is rather higher than in neighbor- 
ing countries under the same latitude, being at Cairo 72° 
32' Fahrenheit (22° above that of London) ; mean temper- 
ature of winter 58° 46', of summer 85° 10'. Egypt can 
scarcely be said to have a winter ; it is covered with ver- 
dure M'hen countries of our latitude are buried in snow ; 
the trees begin to be clothed with new leaves in February, 
almost as soon as they are stripped of the old. The sensa- 
tion of cold, however, is often severe from the great differ- 
ence of the diurnal and nocturnal temperature." * 

Lepsius, whose explorations detained him long at Thebes, 
thus describes the climate there. 

" No one ever inquires here about the weather, for one 
day is exactly like the other, serene, clear, and hitherto not 
too hot. We have no morning or evening red, as there are 
neither clouds nor vapors ; but the first ray of the morning 

* Ancient Egypt, vol. i. p. 17. 
24* 



282 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

calls forth a world of colors in the bare and rugged lime- 
stone mountains closing in around us, and in the brownish 
glittering desert, contrasted with the black, or green-clothed 
lower plain, such as is never seen in northern countries. 
There is scarcely any twilight, as the sun sinks down at 
once. The separation of night and day is just as sudden as 
that between meadow and desert, one step, one moment, 
divides the one from the other. The sombre brilliancy of 
the moon and starlight nights is so much the more refresh- 
ing to the eye which has been dazzled by the ocean light of 
day. The air is so pure and dry, that except in the immedi- 
ate vicinit}%of the river, in spite of the sudden change at 
sunset, there is no fall of dew. We have almost entirely 
forgotten what rain is, for it is above six months since it last 
rained with us in Saqara. A few days ago we rejoiced, 
when towards evening we discovered some light clouds in 
the sky to the south-west, which reminded us of Europe. 
Nevertheless we do not want coolness even in the daytime, 
for a light wind is almost always blowing, which does not 
allow the heat to become too oppressive. Added to this, 
the Nile water is pleasant to the taste, and may be enjoyed 
in great abundance, without any detriment." 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

CAIKO AGAIN SHOOBRA — ■ EHODA OLD CAIRO 

THE DERWISHES. 

It was not without regret that we parted at Cairo with 
the Lotus and our worthy friends, the reis^ Hassan, and the 
crew. To be sure the Lotus, which had been palmed upon 
us at Alexandria at an exorbitant rate, proved to be the 
hull of an old grain boat vamped over ; and though bran 
new with paint, and very comfortable, was too logy, and 
continually got aground. Four weeks on the upward voy- 
age, and nineteen days on the downward, instead of the 
average of eighteen and twelve respectively, were rather 
aggravating to American go-aheadativeness. But we came 
at last to enjoy our leisurely progress, and counted it a per- 
fect luxury to be fifty days without hearing a word from 
any other part of the world. Mails and newspapers were 
almost forgotten. 

The traveller should allow himself not less than two full 
months, and if possible, three, for a visit to Egypt ; and 
should resign himself completely to the uncertainties of 
Nile navigation. Not even the genius and enterprise of a 
Vanderbilt could improve this. To change Nile navigation 
one must change the Nile. Forty years ago, one of my 
companions was kept beating about for two weeks in a sloop 
on the Hudson, between New York and Albany. Then 
nobody thought of jumping overboard, in nature's primitive 
garb, to pull the sloop with ropes, or to shove her along by 



284 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

main strength against wind and tide. Nobody went aloft 
in that same innocent apparel to clew up the sail, making 
every personal consideration bend to the crisis of the boat. 
After all, Nile sailors are the sailors for the Nile ; and it 
w^s not without emotion that, dropping our last hucTcshish 
into the hands of our crew, we bade them farewell, and 
once more donkeyed along beneath the acacias to the gates* 
of Cairo the Magnificent. 

The name Cairo is a curious illustration of the changes 
that occur in proper names. Lepsius gives this account of 
it : " The town is never called any thing by the Arabs now, 
but Masr, and the country the same ; that is the old 
Semitic name, which is more easily pronounced by us in 
the dual termination, Mis'raim. It was only in the tenth 
century, when the present city was founded, that the mod- 
ern Masr, by the addition el Qahireh, that is 'the victo- 
rious,' was distinguished from the earlier Masr el AtiqeK 
the present Old Cairo. The Italians then omitted the h, 
which they could not pronounce, mistook the Arabic article 
el for their masculine il, and thus by its termination, also, 
stamped the whole word as masculine. Hence, the French 
La Gaire, and our Cairo," * 

Welcome, indeed, was the sight of " the Magnificent," on 
our return from, the Upper Nile, and thrice welcome was 
the intelligence we there received from home. We devot- 
ed in all a fortnight to the Egyptian capital. This was 
none too much. I have seen no city which, in the winter 
and spring, has a climate so delicious, and an air so beauti- 
ful, or which, in all its phases, presents to the visitor so 
many novelties and attractions. One never tires of stroll- 
ing under the acacias or in the flower gardens of the Uzhe- 
keehj of witnessing the game of the gereet, or throwing the 

* Bohn, Letters, p. 44. 



I 



SHOOBKA. 285 

lance, and other sports around the cafes on its border, of 
visiting the bazaars, and studying from every accessible 
point oriental character and life. But there are also special 
attractions in and about Cairo, which the visitor will not 
overlook. Some four miles north of the city, near the bank 
of the Nile, are the gardens of Shoohra, a palace built by 
Mohammed Ali, and now belonging to his youngest son, the 
present governor of Alexandria. The road to the palace is 
a broad avenue, perfectly smooth and hard, and lined on 
both sides with acacias, whose branches intertwine, so as to 
form a complete arbor. I have not yet- been Unter den 
Linden at Berlin, but thus far 1 have seen nothing compar- 
able with this Shoobra road. It is the Elm street of New 
Haven, widened and elongated; only the acacia is more 
beautiful than the elm, and diffuses the fragrance of its blos- 
soms, or droops its yellow-haired pendants over your path. 
Besides, on Elm street, you catch no glimpses of the Nile 
or the pyramids, and see no such deep and gorgeous blue, 
suffused with the faintest veil of saffron, as here overhangs 
you, and no such green as here carpets the earth. This 
avenue is the full luxury of the Orient. To be sure, on Elm 
street you do not meet men dragged in chains to be enrolled 
in the army, with a troop of mud-besmeared women scream- 
ing and wailing around them ; nor women trudging barefoot 
with enormous burdens on their heads, while their lords ride 
beside them on donkeys ; nor delicate little girls scraping up 
with their hands the street manure, and putting it in baskets 
on their heads to be taken home and dried for fuel : but 
neither do you meet the portly Turk in rich shawl and tur- 
ban, mounted on his noble steed ; nor the Copt with his 
dark turban and robe, jogging along upon a donkey ; nor a 
splendid carriage preceded by couriers with wands to pre- 
pare the way for a portion of the Pasha's harem, enveloped 
in a profusion of silks and laces, now taking the evening air. 
— No, there can be but one such avenue as this. 



286 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

- The gardens of Shoobra are laid out somewhat in Euro- 
pean style, and are kept with great neatness and care. They 
abound in roses and geraniums of every variety, and in 
orange trees of various qualities. In the centre of the 
Immense plantation is a marble basin of two hundred feet 
diameter, with water several feet in depth, supplied by 
machinery from the Nile, and numerous fountains, with 
curious devices, that scatter their showers upon every side. 
The whole is of marble, and is surrounded with a spacious 
corridor, in each corner of which is a room elegantly fur- 
nished. Here, on a summer evening, while the fountains 
are playing, and jets of gas give a fairy illumination to the 
scene, the owner sails in his gaily decorated boat, or quietly 
inhales his nargileh upon the central platform, or lounges 
on the divans under the corridor, and reahzes the Arabian 
Nights. 

About three miles south of Cairo, is the island of Rhoda, 
a long, narrow island walled up with solid masonry to resist 
the encroachments of the river. Here is a palace belonging 
to the governor of the citadel, which, like the palace at 
Alexandria, exhibits a happy combination of the European 
and the oriental styles, and is planned and furnished with 
exquisite taste. The main saloon is paved with marble and 
adorned with mirrors ; it is cooled by the breezes of the 
river admitted through latticed windows, and by the gentle 
play of a fountain in its centre. The gardens of the late 
Ibrahim Pasha cover nearly the whole of the island. These 
are under the superintendence of an English horticulturist, 
and contain the trees, fruits, and flowers of every clime. A 
beautiful artificial grotto of shells, facing the river, affords a 
cool retreat at the northern extremity of the island. 

The Nilometer, placed upon this island, is a graduated 
tank, by which the rise of the river is measured. When it 
reaches a certain level, proclamation is made for the opening 



RHODA DERWISHES. 287 

of the sluices, to irrigate the land. This is a day of public 
rejoicing, celebrated with civic and religious pomp and 
festivity. I see no warrant in the location, or in the Bible 
narration, for the Arab tradition that at this island Moses 
was found by the daughter of Pharaoh. 

Opposite Rhoda is Geezeh^ where, one may see the old 
Egyptian method of hatching chickens from eggs deposited 
in ovens. It was curious to see thousands of chicks in every 
stage of development. The emperor Adrian said of the 
Egyptians, " I wish them no other curse than that :they may 
be fed with their own chickens, which are hatched in a way 
I am ashamed to relate." 

At old Cairo, the former Babylon of Egypt, are the re- 
mains of a Roman citadel, within whose walls both Roman 
Catholics and Copts now have their residence and churches, 
the latter being said to cover various points of interest con- 
nected with Moses and his history. But, as I have said 
above, these traditions do not seem to be sustained by 
physical and geographical data, or by any intimations fur- 
nished in the Bible. The citadel itself is an object of interest, 
both on account of its massive structure, and on account of 
its heterogeneous population and uses. 

The principal object, of interest at old Cairo, is the college 
of Derivishes — a sort of Masonic order of Mohammedans. 
These have weekly a religious dance, which we witnessed on 
a Friday, the Mohammedan sabbath. The derwishes have 
no uniform dress ; some wear high caps and very long hair, 
and large amulets, but others wear the common dress of the 
country. Among them were several Italian soldiers, who 
have enlisted in the Pasha's army. Their ceremony was 
conducted in a small circular mosque, lighted l^om above. 
At the appointed hour, the chief or sheik entered, and took 
his seat upon a low divan. Presently three or four vener- 
able men, apparently dignitaries, came in, and did him obei- 
sance by bowing and Idssing his hand^ just as the cardinals 



288 EGYPT, PAST AND PKESENT. 

do homage to the Pope in St. Peter's or the SIstlne chapel. 
After this, others entered at intervals, some twenty in all, 
and fell on their knees before the chief, as the bishops pros- 
trate themselves before the Pope. Forming a circle, they 
began a low, monotonous chant, which they continued for 
several minutes ; they then raised their voices by degrees, 
and accelerated the chant, accompanying it with a swaying 
motion of the body. By and by they rose, chanting with 
greater rapidity and vehemence, and throwing their bodies 
into all manner of contortions. The chief then went round 
the circle, and removed from each his cap and outer gar- 
ments, at the same time shouting Ifllah-Il-lah, as if to 
excite them still more. A boy now began to sing in a wild 
strain, and a lute struck in its soft notes, while the shouting 
rose to a terrific pitch, and at every utterance VI — Idh the 
head was thrown forwards and backwards till it almost 
touched the floor. Rude drums w^ere next beaten till the 
noise equalled that of Pandemonium. And now^ the steam 
was fairly up, for the whole circle responded to the chief, 
in a hoarse, coughing note, ugh-tigh, exactly like the snort 
of a Mississippi high pressure steamboat. This lasted for 
several minutes, accompanied with the most frantic con- 
tortions of body. Indeed, I never saw such violent muscular 
action. Presently one and another broke from the circle, 
and began to whirl upon the floor. At length one fell down 
in a terrible fit of hysterics ; I thought he must die upon 
the spot ; but a muscular man, who had retained his self- 
control, planted his knees upon his breast, and pummelled 
him into life. Some of the most violent retained their self- 
possession, and became calm in an instant. At the close of 
the ceremony they embraced each other, received the bene- 
diction of their chief, and withdrew to an adjoining apart- 
ment, where they regaled themselves with cofiee and pipes. 
We were deeply impressed with the cruelties of super- 
stition and fanaticism. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

MOHAMMEDANISM MOSQUES AND PEAYERS. 

The limits of this volume, and its descriptive character, 
do not admit of an abstract discussion of the principles and 
workings of Islamism ; jet I cannot forbear the attempt to 
delineate its outward aspect, as seen in the mosques, and in 
the manners of the people. The Christian traveller cannot 
look upon the religious rites of a strange people with idle 
curiosity ; he will desire to penetrate their meaning, and 
the secret of their power. And yet the mere traveller will 
see only the surface of things ; and it must be left to the 
philosophical student and the intelligent resident to explore 
the interior. Fortunately, Sale's Translation of the Koran, 
Maurice's profound disquisition? on the Religions of the 
World, and Lane's graphic chapter on the Ritual and Moral 
Laws of the Egyptians, leave us little to desire as a key to 
the dogmas and practices of the Mohammedan religion. 

The first great doctrine of this faith is, the unity of God. 
''^ There is no deity hut God. He is God; one God. God is 
the Eternal. He begetteth not, nor is He begotten; and 
there is none equal to Him." 

But in the origin of Islamism, this doctrine was not " the 
mere dry assertion of a school formula;" but "the an- 
nouncement of a Living Being, acting, speaking, ruling." 
It was a faith to be propagated; the recognition of a 
supreme, an all-controlling will, to be carried out by man in 
executive acts for the honor of God. This gave to Mo- 
25 



290 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

hammedanism a power like the wliirlwind in an age of 
universal formalism, deadness, and degeneracy. Such a 
belief in God, as an absolute, imperative will, when not 
modified by love, is ever the chief element and impulse of 
fanaticism. But when the visible antagonism to this will 
was overcome, when the idols of the heathen, and the 
images and pictures of the Christians were" demolished, and 
the victorious crescent waved from the Caaba of Mecca to 
the Alhambra of Granada, and especially when " the ham- 
mer of the Mayor of Paris, and the heroes in the Asturian 
mountains," held in check the followers of the Prophet, and 
the cross of the crusaders grappled with the crescent for the 
mastery of the Holy City, Mohammedanism, no longer 
propagating, conquering, destroying, sank into a drear and 
dogged fatalism. 

" In the Christian nations which were permitted to fall 
under the armies of Islam, almost as much as in those which 
were avowedly Pagan, the sense of a Divine Almighty 
Will, to which all human wills were to be bowed, had 
evaporated amidst the worship of images, amidst moral 
corruptions, philosophical theories, religious controversies. 
Notions about God more or less occupied them; but God 
himself was not in all their thoughts." * Hence the fiery 
power of the doctrine of one living, present God. But 
" because the Mohammedan recognizes a mere will govern- 
ing all things, and that will not a loving will, he is converted, 
in the course of his history, from a noble witness of a Per- 
sonal Being, into the worshipper of a dead necessity." 
The old fire of the system has died out, and a dead formal- 
ism alone remains. 

Mohammed incorporated with his system the leading 
facts both of Judaism and of Christianity. He held that 

* Maurice. 



MOHAMMEDANISM. 291 

God lias revealed himself to man through a series of 
prophets and apostles, of whom he [Mohammed] is the last 
and the greatest. The six acknowledged prophets of God 
are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, 
each of v/hom superseded his j)redecessor in the extent and 
the authority of his revelation. Hence the Koran supplants 
the Old and New Testaments. 

In addition to their mechanical faith in one God, and in 
Mohammed as his prophet, the followers of Islam believe, 
with a most superstitious fear, in the existence of good and 
evil genii. They believe also in " the immortahty of the soul, 
the general resurrection and judgment, in future rewards 
and punishments in Paradise and hell," and in a sort of 
purgatory for the faithful who may fall into sin. 

The sensual pictures of Paradise, given in the Koran, 
are understood by the more devout and learned Muslims to 
be figurative ; but they are generally taken in a gross, literal 
sense. These pictures are such as the following : — 

" It is the doctrine of the Koran, that no person will be 
admitted into Paradise by his own merit, but that admission 
will be granted to the behevers merely by the mercy of 
God on account of their faith ; yet that the felicity of each 
person will be proportioned to his good works. The very 
meanest in Paradise is promised eighty thousand servants, 
seventy-two wives of the girls of Paradise, besides the wives 
he had in this world, if he desire to have the latter, and the 
good will doubtless desire the good, and a tent erected for 
him of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large ex- 
tent; and will be waited on by three hundred attendants 
while he eats, and served in dishes of gold, whereof three 
hundred shall be set before him at once, each containing a 
different kind of food, the last morsel of which will be as 
grateful as the first. Wine, also, though forbidden in 
this life, will yet be freely allowed to be drunk in the next,^ 



292 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

and without danger, since the wine of Paradise will not 
inebriate." * 

The first great duty of the Muslim is that of grayer. The 
devout Mohammedan performs this duty five times a day ; 
viz., at sunset, at nightfall, at daybreak, at noon, and at 
about the middle of the afternoon. These seasons must 
never be anticipated. The mosques are commonly open 
throughout the day for prayers, and the Imams, or prayer 
leaders, are in attendance at the stated hours of prayer, to 
lead the devotions of such as are there assembled. During 
the Ramazan, or Mohammedan Lent, the mosques are open 
by night also. 

The Muslim repeats his prayers at the appointed hour 
wherever he may chance to be, or however employed. We 
have seen this illustrated in the orange-merchant at Alex- 
andria, in the reis and the steersman of our Nile boat, and 
in the carpet-merchants of the bazaar in Cairo. But 
prayer, wherever performed, is strictly an individual act; 
there is no such thing as family prayer. Women seldom 
go to the mosques, and .they seldom pray at home. On 
Friday — the Mohammedan Sabbath — a congregation 
assemble in the mosque, and go through the prayers in 
unison. The Imam then adds an exposition of the Koran. 

The hour of prayer is always announced from the minaret 
of the mosque by the muezzin, who chants in a shrill, plain- 
tive tone the following words, repeating each sentence 
several times in succession, " God is most Great," " There 
is no Deity but God," " Mohammed is God's Apostle." 
" Come to prayer," " Come to security." " God is most 
great." " There is no Deity but God." 

As the mosque is used chiefly for prayer, it will help the 
reader to comprehend the Mohammedan ritual, to give a 

* Lane, 1, 92. 



MOSQUES AND PRAYERS. 293 

general description of this peculiarly oriental structure. I 
was greatly disappointed in the mosques of Cairo. Few of 
them exhibit any architectural beauty, though some are 
good specimens of the Saracenic style. Most of them have 
a shabby look, and are in a neglected state. There is no 
taste, or perception of the beautiful, in the present race of 
Egypt ; only now and then some Mohammed Ali springs 
up, and by sheer force of will makes advances upon liis 
times. 

The minute and accurate sketch of the interior of a 
mosque, given by Mr. Lane, is so much better than any 
which I could draw, that I take the liberty of substituting it 
for my own description. 

" Some of the mosques of Cairo are so large as to occupy 
spaces three or four hundred feet square. They are mostly 
built of stone, the alternate courses of vv^hich are generally 
colored externally red and white. Most commonly a large 
mosque consists of porticos surrounding a square, open court, 
in the centre of which is a tank or a fountain for ablution. 
One side of the building faces the direction of Mecca, and 
the portico on this side being the principal place of prayer, 
is more spacious than those on the three other sides of the 
court ; it generally has two or more rows of columns, form- 
ing so many aisles parallel with the exterior wall. In some 
cases, this portico, like the other three, is open to the court ; 
in other cases it is separated from the court by partitions of 
wood, connecting the front row of columns. In the centre 
of its exterior wall is the " mehrab," or niche, which marks 
the direction of Mecca, and to the right of this is the " mim- 
bar," or pulpit. Opposite the mehrab in the fore part of 
the portico, or in its central part, there is generally a plat- 
form, called dikkeh, surrounded by a parapet, and supported 
by small columns ; and by it, or before it, are one or two 
seats, having a kind of desk to bear a volume of the Koran, 
25* 



294 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

from whicli a chapter is read to the congregation. The 
walls are generally quite plain, being simply whitewashed; 
but in some mosques, the lower part of the wall of the place 
of prayer is lined with colored marble, and the other part 
ornamented with various devices executed in stucco, but 
mostly with texts of the Koran, which form long friezes, 
having a pleasing effect, and never with the representation 
of any thing that has life. The pavement is covered with 
matting, and the rich and poor pray side by side ; the man 
of rank or wealth enjoying no peculiar distinction or comfort, 
unless, which is sometimes the case, he have a prayer carpet 
brought by his servant, and spread for him." 

A particular corner in the great mosque was pointed out 
to us as that in which Abbas Pasha performs his Friday 
devotions. 

The following is the process of washing, preliminary^ to 
prayer, as described by Lane, and witnessed daily at the 
fountains in the mosques. 

" The person having tucked up his sleeves a little higher 
than his elbows, says, in a low voice, or inaudibly, ' I purpose 
performing the wudoo, for prayer.' He then washes his 
hands three times ; saying, in the same manner as before, 
* In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful ! 
Praise be to God who hath sent down water for purification, 
and made El-Islam to be a light and a conductor and a guide 
to thy gardens, the gardens of delight, and to thy mansion, 
the mansion of peace.' Then he rinses his mouth three 
times, throwing the water into it with the right hand, and, in 
doing this, he says, ' O God, assist me in the reading of thy 
book, and in commemorating Thee, and in thanking Thee, 
and in worshipping Thee well ! Next, with his right hand, 
he throws water up his nostrils, and then blows it out, com- 
pressing his nostrils with the thumb and finger of the left 
hand, and this also is done three times. While doing it he 



MOSQUES AND PRAYEKS. 295 

says, * O God, make me to smell the odors of Paradise, and 

bless me with its delights ; and make me not to smell the 

smell of the fires of Hell.' He then washes his face three 

times, throwing up the water with both hands, and saying, 

' God, whiten my face with thy light on the day when . 

thou shalt whiten the faces of thy favorites ; and do not 

blacken my face on the day when thou shalt blacken the 

faces of thine enemies.' His right hand and arm, as high 

as the elbow, he next washes three times, and as many times 

causes the water to run along his arm from the palm of the 

hand to the elbow, saying, as he does this, ' O God, give me 

my book in my right hand, and reckon with me with an 

easy reckoning.' In the same manner he washes the left 

hand and arm, saying, ' God, do not give me my book in 

my left hand, nor behind my back ; and do not reckon with 

me with a difficult reckoning, nor make me to be one of the 

people of the fire.' He next draws the wetted right hand 

over the upper part of his head, raising his turban or cap 

with his left : this he does but once ; and he accompanies 

the action with this supplication, ' God, cover me with thy 

mercy, and pour down thy blessing upon me, and shade me 

under the shadow of thy canopy, on the day when there 

shall be no shade but its shade.' If he have a beard he 

then combs it with the wetted fingers of his right hand ; 

holding his hand with the palm forAvards, and passing the 

fingers through his beard from the throat upwards. He 

then puts the tips of his forefingers into his ears, and twists 

them round, passing his thumbs at the same time round the 

back of the ears, from the bottom upwards, and saying, ' O 

God, make me to be of those who hear what is said, and 

obey what is best,' or, ' God, make me to hear good.' 

Next he wipes his neck with the back of the fingers of both 

hands, making the ends of his fingers meet behind his neck, 

and then drawing them forward, and, in doing so, he says, 



296 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

' Gocl, free my neck from the fire, and keep me from the 
chains, and the colhirs, and the fetters.' Lastly, he washes 
his feet, as high as the ankles ; he washes the right foot first, 
saying, at the same time, '0 God, make firm my feet upon 
the Sirat, on the day when my feet shall slip upon it ; ' on 
washing the left foot, he says, ' O God, make my labor to be 
approved, and my sin forgiven, and my works accepted, 
merchandise that shall not perish, by thy pardon, O mighty, 
O very forgiving, by thy mercy, most merciful of those 
who show mercy ! ' After having thus completed the ablu- 
tion he says, looking towards heaven, ' Thy perfection, 
God! I extol with thy praise: I testify that there is no 
deity but thee alone ; Thou hast no companion ; I implore 
thy forgiveness, and turn to thee with repentance.' Then 
looking towards the earth, he adds, ' I testify that there is 
no deity but God, and I testify that Mohammed is his ser- 
vant, and his apostle.' Having uttered these words, he 
should recite once, twice, or three times the Soorat el-Kadr, 
or ninety-seventh chapter of the Koran." 

This entire purification is performed in a much shorter 
time than is occupied in reading the account of it ; and a 
ceremony altogether beautiful in its conception, and touch- 
ingly appropriate in its religious sentiments, is marred by its 
mechanical execution. The same is true of the attitudes of 
prayer. These are assumed with a mechanical uniformity 
quite foreign to a true devotion. The prayer consists 
mainly of repetitions of the name of Allah, the enumeration 
of his attributes with ascriptions and ejaculations, according 
to a prescribed formula. Each attitude has its appropriate 
utterance, and a mistake here vitiates the whole perform- 
ance, and obliges the suppliant to go back and begin at the 
beginning. The routine of a Mohammedan prayer will be 
better learned from the accompanying picture, than from 
any description.. The prostrations are given in their nu- 
merical order. 



MOSQUES AND PRAYEKS. 297 

The Ezlier, or "splendid" mosque, some nine hundred 
years old, is worth visiting, as the College of Cairo. It is a 
very spacious building, and abounds in cool and shady colon- 
nades, all along which, seated on mats or cushions, or on the 
naked floor, are pupils studying the Koran, and reading or 
writing under the direction of the priests, while, at the same 
time, dealers in petty wares, and loungers of all sorts, find 
in these sacred premises an undisturbed retreat. As in 
the smaller schools connected with other mosques, lessons 
are here recited in unison, and the effort seems to be to 
memorize the Koran, with a swaying motion of the body. 
This is the height of present Mohammedan literature. 
However, the literary and scientific schools, founded by 
Mohammed Ali, are beginning to acquaint the people, so 
far as their prejudices will allow, with the literature of 
European nations. 



b 



CHAPTEE XXXVIl. 

MOHAMMEDAN INFIDELS PROSPECTS OF EVANGEIIZA- 

TION TOLERATION. 

Much that I have seen and heard in Egypt goes to sat- 
isfy me that Mohammedanism, as a practical and vital sys- 
tem, is losing its hold upon the masses of the peo|)le ; that 
it has become a traditionary thing, and that the minds of 
many are in the transition state of unbelief, which will pre- 
pare them to receive a more substantial faith. Of the in- 
strumentalities to be used in the evangelization of Egypt, I 
shall speak more at length in a subsequent chapter on the 
Copts. But in immediate connection with the view of Mo- 
hammedanism just presented, it will be interesting to study 
the phases of the common mind toward that system. 

Many of the common people are evidently indifferent to 
the established religion of the country. They seldom visit 
a mosque, or go through the prescribed forms of prayer. 
Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, is very much Hke the 
Sunday of continental Europe : the more devout close their 
shops for an hour or two and go to the mosques, but the 
rest of the day is given to business or pleasure. Among the 
crew of our boat, there were some who never performed 
their devotions ; one even mimicked the devotional attitudes 
of others ; and their wit consisted chiefly in transposing sen- 
tences from the Koran, in punning upon its sacred words, 
and in imitating its style when conversing upon trifling sub- 
jects, like the low wit of some American newspapers in 



MOHAMMEDAN INFIDELS. 299 

producing new chapters from tlie books of Chronicles and 
Kings, as a satire upon President Jackson and his cabinet. 
When two boats pass each other on the river, a favorite 
amusement of the crews is to bandy all manner of curses 
from Mohammed in mere jokes, and to vie with each other 
in travestying sentences from the Koran. This profane 
sport, as we should regard it, they will continue as long as 
the boats are within hearing of each other. It shows how 
feeble is the hold of their religion upon the affections and 
the reverence of this class of the people. Yet many of 
them are very devout, and I have often been impressed with 
the seriousness and the earnestness of some of our crew 
in their devotions. These they perform at stated hours 
upon the oj^en deck, as abstractedly as if they were secluded 
in the closet ; but I am satisfied, that even with such per- 
sons religion is often a mere matter of education and of form. 
Once when giving the more sober and religious portion 
of the crew some information about America, I ventured to 
test their regard for Mohammed by saying, that in America 
Allah (God) was known, but Mohammed was ma feesh 
(nothing). I did not say that Mohammed was nobody — for 
I would not thus shock their prejudices at first — but that 
Mohammed was nothing in America. Instead of being 
offended, they were amused. Then pointing upward, I said, 
Allah, fee hool emdtrah ; Allah teieh, (God is everywhere; 
God is good ;) and pointing to the east, Mohammed — 
Mecca, ma feesh, (Mohammed is at Mecca, and is nothing). 
They understood my rude Arabic and my gestures, and 
responded with a hearty laugh. They then repeated "Allah," 
and waited for me to say " teieh,^' " Mohammed " — to which 
I responded, " ma feesh ; " at which they laughed again, as 
if itnvere a capital joke. I afterwards heard them repeat- 
ing this among themselves. They never intimated by word 
or look to me, or to each other, that the name of Moham- 



300 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

med was too sacred to be trifled with. To understand the 
significance of this little incident, we have only to reflect 
with what feelings we should hear from the lips of a stran- 
ger," that in his country Christ was nothing, or there was no 
Christ, and that while God was everywhere, Christ was in 
his sepulchre at Jerusalem, without agency or influence in 
the affairs of the world. 

Let it cease to be a capital offence for a Mussulman to 
renounce his faith, and there are multitudes of the common 
people in Egypt, who would be deterred by no religious con- 
viction from hearing the Gospel, and accepting Christ and his 
salvation. And even now, when Mohammedanism, as a 
power, is dependent for its very existence upon the selfish 
protection and the mutual jealousies of Christian powers, I 
cannot see that it presents a more formidable front to mis- 
sionary labor than did a Pharisaic Judaism, and an estab- 
lished and unrelenting idolatry in the time of the Apostles, 
when, nevertheless, Paul, tarrying at Ephesus, said, "^ 
great door, and effectual is opened to me, and there are many 
adversaries.'^ But the time for direct missionary effort 
among Mussulmen is not yet. Indeed, I incHne to the 
opinion, that Mohammedanism, like Eomanism, must be 
overturned, as a system, and as a civil power, before its 
votaries can be gained to the Gospel. It is important, how- 
ever, to discriminate between a system and its votaries, — 
between those who work the machinery of superstition, and 
those who are held down by its enormous pressure. If the 
Beast and the False Prophet really symbolize Popery and 
Mohammedanism, on which interpreters are not agreed, it 
does not follow because these are to be cast alive into the 
lake of fire, that all their nominal adherents are to be 
destroyed with them ; and, therefore, while the providence 
of God is preparing the overthrow of these tremendous sys- 
tems of error, the people of God should be preparing to take 



PROSPECTS OF EVANGELIZATION. 301 

possession of the nations after their fall. For this purpose 
we should have in training throughout the East a company 
of native missionaries — oriental in their habits and man- 
ner, and qualified, as no foreigners could be, for the work of 
evangelizing the whole eastern world. Such missionaries 
will be the Armenians of Turkey, and the Nestorians of 
Persia, — revived and purified as these have been, under a 
new dispensation of the Gospel, — and such, too, may be 
the Copts of Egypt, v/hen brought back to the simple faith 
of the New Testament. 

Christ confined his labors to the Jews, not only in fulfil- 
ment, of the Divine purpose toward them as the chosen 
people, but also because, notwithstanding their unbelief and 
hardness of heart, they were of all nations the best pre- 
pared to receive his Gospel, and the best fitted to convey it 
to others. They had become a nation of trafi&ckers, and in 
every principal city Ihey had established a synagogue for 
the worship of the true God. Their Scriptures, already 
translated into the universal Greek tongue, their schools 
and their synagogues, were so many points of contact, by 
which the electrifying influence of the Gospel could be im- 
parted to the nations. Humanly speaking, it was with a 
wise economy that the public ministry of Christ was con- 
fined to Judea and the Jews. Acting upon the same princi- 
ple, the American Board have commenced their missionary 
operations in the East, among the nominally Christian com- 
munities, which still retain some traces of the Gospel, and 
which in their business connection form a natural channel 
of communication with the Mohammedan and Pagan world. 
The result, thus far, has justified the wisdom of this course 
in Turkey and in Persia. Why, then, may it not be adopted 
in Egypt also, with the same promise ? 

Whatever might be the attitude of the Coptic ecclesias- 
tics toward any movement for the regeneration of their 
26 



302 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

church, the people of that communion in towns and villages 
remote from the capital, are prepared to welcome judicious 
and kindly missionary labors. In the capital, the influence 
of the Patriarch, and of the higher clergy, would be more 
powerfully felt ; but even there the Rev. Mr. Leider, the 
excellent missionary of the Church of England, has been 
able to accom|)lish something, incidentally, for the enlighten- 
ment of the Copts, while maintaining an English service 
for the benefit of travellers and of foreign residents. We 
have seen that the Bible has lately been circulated to ad- 
vantage at some points on the Upper Nile. Besides the 
Copts, who are very numerous, there are in Cairo two 
thousand Armenians, eight or nine thousand Franks and 
Greeks, and four or five thousand Eoman Catholic Copts, 
Greeks, and Armenians. In Alexandria, there are mem- 
bers of the Greek, Armenian, and Roman Catholic com- 
munions, as v/ell as Copts ; at Rosetta, on the seaboard, 
there is a Latin convent ; and at Damietta, the most easterly 
part of Egypt, about one half the popuMon are of the 
Greek Church. 

The existence of so many bodies of professed Christians 
in Egypt, shows at once the toleration of the government, 
and the advantages of this land as a field of missionary 
effort. Egypt belongs to Turkey, and in all matters of 
faith, is obedient to the decisions of the Mufti of Constanti- 
nople. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that the same en- 
lightened and liberal policy which permits the labors of 
American missionaries at Beirut, at Smyrna, at Constanti- 
nople, at Brousa, at Aintab, and other points in the Turkish 
empire, and that guarantees to Protestant converts from the 
old recognized churches the enjoyment of full religious 
liberty, would grant protection to missionaries laboring in 
Egypt, and would allow them in like manner to garner the 
results of those labors. At all events the experiment should 
be made. 



TOLEEATION. 303 

The late government of Moliammed Ali practised relig- 
ious toleration ; and there is no reason to believe, that his 
successor and grandson will depart from his example. An 
instance of this is mentioned by the Scotch missionary depu- 
tation who visited Egypt several years ago. In their journal 
they say, "At Eosetta we visited a rice-mill which is in the 
course of erection, and found that the principal workmen in 
it were four Americans, employed by the Pasha. They 
were very happy to meet with us, and invited us to their 
lodging. One of them begged us to leave any English 
books which we could spare, as they had read over all their 
store. They said they kept the Sabbath ; for when engag- 
ing with the Pasha, he allowed them this privilege, that 
they might take either their own Sunday, or the Moham- 
medan Friday, for rest." Here was a respect for conscience 
shown by the viceroy toward persons in his own employ- 
ment. So, too, under the present Pasha, Coptic Christians 
are employed in common with Turkish and Arab Mussul- 
men in the sugar factories belonging to the government, 
and I j)resume that the religious scruples of the Copts are 
respected on the Sabbath, though the factories are in opera- 
tion then as on other days. 

The prejudices of Moslems against Christians are tradi- 
tionally strong. They grow in part out of their religion, 
and are sometimes carried to a ridiculous extreme. Thus, 
whereas Moslem culprits are heheaded without the gates of 
Cairo, " Christians and Jews, whose blood is thought to 
defile the sword, are hanged in the Frank quarter of the 
city." I wished" to buy a*copy of the I^oran in the Turkish 
bazaar, but my guide told me I must go to the Frank quar- 
ter, for a Mussulman would not dare to sell a copy to an 
unbeliever. Thus the Koran and the sword of the execu- 
tioner are alike defiled by contact with a Christian. Yet 
the Koran itself has some precepts of toleration ; as where 



304 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

it says, " We have jDrescribed to each people their sacred 
rights. Let them observe them, and not wrangle with thee 
concerning this matter. If they dispute with thee, say, 
God knoweth your actions ; God will judge between you." 

Moslem prejudices against Christians have been greatly 
mitigated within a few years, by the increase of travel in 
Egypt, and by the foreign policy of Mohammed Ali. Eng- 
lish residents of Cairo, who were once hooted at as infidels, 
now transact business upon the most public streets, with 
Moslems as their servants. Native Christians often hold 
business places in government institutions superior to Mus- 
sulmen ; and Mr. Wilkinson says of Old Cairo, that, " Be- 
sides the Coptic community, is a Greek convent, within the 
precincts of this ancient fortress, and numerous Moslems 
have opened shops in its narrow streets, living in perfect 
harmony with their religious adversaries." 

Mohammed Ali not only formed his army and his fleet 
upon the European model, and erected arsenals, hospitals, 
military and naval establishments, and manufactories under 
European superintendence, but he also established, at Cairo, 
schools for free education in general knowledge, and in 
medical and other sciences. To these, the people and the 
Moslem teachers made great opposition. " They objected 
to their children being taught what they had not themselves 
learned, or what was not connected with their religion, and 
Frank languages and sciences appeared to be an abomination 
to the Egyptians." Mothers would even cut off the fore- 
finger of a child's right hand, to prevent its being taught to 
write ! But under the influence of experience, and of pecu- 
niary rewards, these prejudices are dying out, and the 
schools are prospering. 

In confirmation of what I have said of the willingness of 
Mussulmen, in the smaller villages, to listen to missionary 
teaching, I would mention one or two incidents reported by 



TOLERATION. 305 

the Scottish deputation, whose track through Egypt lay 
along the seaboard from Alexandria to El Arish. They 
speak of the Sheik of Balteen as having promised to receive 
Arabic tracts, if they would send them. At Gernatter they 
were entertained by the master of the post-house — an Arab 
in the service of the Pasha — and they expounded the 
Scriptures to him and to several Arabs in attendance. These 
all listened with the utmost attention, putting in a note of 
approbation, again and again, such as " good, good," " very 
just." 

In view of these facts it cannot be questioned that Egypt 
is in a measure open to missionary labor, and that it offers 
a most inviting field. It is a field, too, which should be im- 
mediately occu23ied. Adverse influences are already at 
work, and there is danger that Infidelity and Romanism 
will divide the spoil of Mohammedanism and Coptic Chris- 
tianity. There is a large proportion of foreigners, chiefly 
Italians, in Alexandria, and the city already exhibits many 
of the vices of a seaport town. As I have before said, 
Italians are to be found in all the principal towns in Upper 
Egypt, wearing the national costume, and keeping shops in 
the bazaars. These are either nominal Catholics, or down- 
right unbelievers ; and their influence in either case as re- 
puted Christians — for such all Franks are taken to be — 
must be prejudicial to the interests of Christianity. Indeed, 
I have heard of Arabs quoting the opinion of Frenchmen 
that there is no God, and making the dissolute character of 
some_ foreigners an argument against the Christian religion. 
The travel upon the Nile has so much increased, and travel- 
lers are brought into such constant intercourse with sailors 
and with villagers, that the impress of the so-called Christian 
nations will soon be deeply marked upon the face of Egypt, 
for good or for evil. A large proportion of travellers on the 
Nile are citizens of the United States, and some of these, I 
26* 



306 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

fear, do no credit to Republican or Christian institutions. I 
met with one whose only memories of the Nile appeared to 
be a boast of the number of tame pigeons he had killed, and 
a curse upon the wild ducks that had eluded his shot. Some 
even make their boast of positive vice. Is it not time that 
the missionary was here to teach the people to discriminate 
between the false and the true ? 

It is pleasant to find it recorded by the Scottish mission, 
before quoted, that while their dragoman denounced some 
"Christians" whom he had served, he remarked "that he 
had met with good Christians, mentioning, with great affec- 
tion and respect. Professor Robinson, from America, with 
whom he had travelled " to Mount Sinai and through Pales- 
tine. Christians from other lands are criticized in Egypt, 
and Christianity is judged by their deportment. With no 
better illustrations of Christianity than the formalism of the 
Copts, the irreligion of the Italians, and the irregularities of 
some English and American travellers now furnish, it would 
not be strange if inquiring minds among the Mohammedans, 
doubting the truth or the sufficiency of their own rehgious 
system, should be fltterly repelled from the Gospel. More- 
over Roman Catholic emissaries are busy in Egypt. I have 
referred to their influence at Negadeh. Is it not time that 
the sincere friends of Christ were at work in a land which, 
next to Palestine, was the land of the Bible ? 

What biblical associations draw us toward Egypt ! And 
how powerfully must these associations one day spring up 
for the evangelizing of the people ! Here Abraham, Jacob, 
and Joseph sojourned, and found favor with the princes of 
the land. Here Moses was born and nourished, and here 
the Lord wrought by his hand such marvels for the deliver- 
ance of Israel. Here was the land of bondage, and here 
the theatre of the Exodus. Here was instituted the Pass- 
over, the type of that great sacrifice which we now com- 



BIBLE ASSOCIATIONS. 307 

memorate in the breaking of bread. Here Solomon sought 
the daughter of a king to grace his golden palace at Jeru- 
salem. Here Jeremiah — the faithful prophet — was led 
into captivity. Here Joseph and Mary found a refuge with 
the infant Jesus from the malice of the barbarous Herod — 
the same land where, in the time of Moses, an edict went 
forth to exterminate the chosen seed by destroying the infant 
sons of the Israelites, 'being made to preserve that seed from 
a like edict in Judea. 

And not only is this land full of the history and the proph- 
ecies of the Scriptures, and a perpetual witness for their 
truth, but here wh€re all customs are stereotyped, where the 
dresses and the utensils of the people are the same to-day as 
were sculptured upon tombs and monuments upwards of 
three thousand years ago, one is continually reminded of the 
fidelity of the Bible in its minutest references, and assured 
that it must have been written by persons residing in the 
midst of oriental scenes. Of this one sees much more in 
Palestine. But even here one is continually reminded of 
the Scriptures, in the manners and customs of the people. 
The landmarks, the dove-cotes, the sheepfold, the manger, 
the mill-stones, the " booths for cattle,^' the " lodge in a gar- 
den of cucumbers," the well surrounded by women, the 
mourning women, the lepers, the washing of feet and the 
girding of loins, the dwelling among tombs, the writer's ink- 
horn and the graving upon the hands — these and many 
other biblical allusions that convey to us no very definite 
idea, are here perfectly obvious and natural. The Old 
Testament here becomes instinct with a new life. We feel 
its truthfulness ; we see its meaning ; and we see also, what 
adaptation and what power it must have in all these eastern 
lands when they shall be fully opened to the circulation of 
the Bible. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

EAKLY CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT PERSECUTIONS AND 

'triumphs DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATRY. 

Egypt was once a Christian country. Not that its 
inhabitants were ever thoroughly christianized ; but in the 
reign of Constantine the Great, the Christian religion was 
established in Egypt, as it was throughout the Roman Em- 
pire, and it continued to be the established religion of the 
country when, after the division of the Roman Empire, 
Egypt remained an appendage of the eastern or lower 
empire, under Theodosius and his successors, until the Arab 
invasion in the beginning of the seventh century. 

The Gospel was introduced into Egypt in the time of the 
apostles. Among the multitude who witnessed the miracu- 
lous manifestation of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 
and who heard in their native tongues the wonderful works 
of God, were " dwellers in Egypt," who had come up from 
Alexandria and other parts of Egypt, to the great yearly 
festival at Jerusalem. The city of Alexandria, at that time 
the great depot of the commerce of Arabia, of Ethiopia, and 
of the Indies, and inferior only to the Roman capital — was 
a favorite residence of the Jews, who had already become 
the brokers, or the money-changers, of the commercial world. 
At the commencement of the Christian era there were 
residing in Alexandria a hundred thousand Jews, or one third 
of the free population of the city, and one sixth of the whole 
population. So late as the seventh century, when Amer took 



EAKLY CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT. 309 

the city, he reported it to contain " forty thousand tributary 
Jews." Alexandria was a seat of learning as well as of 
commerce, and in addition to its renowned school of Philoso- 
phy, it boasted under the Ptolemies a library of seven hun- 
dred thousand manuscript volumes, which contained "a copy 
of every known work," and the original manuscript of many 
of the most distmguished authors. Here Jewish rabbis vied 
with Grecian sages in the study of letters; and here, under the 
dh^ection of the viceroy, some three centuries before Christ, 
were assembled the seventy Jewish doctors who translated 
the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language, then the 
language of universal Hterature and of polite society, and 
who thus prepared the way for the rapid diffusion of the 
Gospel of Christ. '' Grecian and Jewish culture at Alex- 
andria furnished points of contact and union for Chris- 
tianity." * No doubt the Jews of Egypt, who had joined 
themselves to the Apostles at the Pentecost, on returning to 
Alexandria reported wdiat they had seen and heard, and 
preached Christ in the synagogues of that city; and no 
doubt many who heard the Word of the Lord at their 
mouth, also believed. The royal treasurer of Ethiopia, 
whose religious faith had brought him more than a thousand 
miles in his chariot to worship at Jerusalem, would hardly 
have returned through Egypt without reporting in the 
synagogues his interview with Philip, and his personal 
discovery of Christ, in the writings of the Prophet Esaias. 
Even in the first century, Ethiopia stretched out her arms 
to God. 

Alexandria gave birth to ApoUos, that '''eloquent man, 
and mighty in the Scriptures," who — though after his 
enlightenment at Ephesus he labored chiefly in Achaia — 
no doubt furthered the gospel in his native city. Indeed it 

* Neander. 



310 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

would seem tliat lie himself liad there learned of Christ in 
part, before his visit to Ephesus, and had begun to preach 
Him as the Messiah, while as yet he knew only the baptism 
of John. Doubtless the spread of Christianity among the 
Jews of Egypt was accelerated by the fulfilment, as it 
were, before their eyes, of that which was spoken of the 
Lord by the prophet. Out of Egypt have I called my Son. 
It is said, too, that Mark made Egypt the theatre of his 
labors. 

The number of Christians in Egypt in the earlier centu- 
ries of the Christian era, is attested by the memorials both 
of their sufferings and of their prosperity, that are yet 
scattered throughout the land. Egypt then appertained to 
the Roman empire ; and the fortunes of Christianity there 
varied with its fortunes throughout the empire, from the 
era of its persecution *to that of its inauguration. The 
Macedonian dynasty, established upon the conquest of 
Egypt by Alexander in the fourth century before Christ, 
was superseded by the invasion of Antiochus in the second 
century, and the more decisive Roman conquest under 
Julius Ca3sar in the first century before Christ. The Roman 
emperors regarded Egypt as one of the most important 
provinces of the empire, and while they enriched their 
capital with its spoils, and transported obelisks and columns 
from the Nile to adorn the Tiber, they also erected new 
temples and monuments in Egypt, and added the names 
of the Caesars to the names of the Pharaohs and the Ptole- 
mies in the sculptured cartouches of her kings. The 
Emperor Adrian twice visited this part of his dominions, 
and Diocletian came in person to subdue the revolted city 
of Alexandria, and commemorated the event by the pillar 
which is almost the only surviving monument of the ancient 
city. In short, whatever affected Rome affected Egypt, 
fifteen hundred miles distant. In particular, the persecu- 



EAELT CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT. 311 

tions of the later emperors against the Cliristians, were felt 
with rigor from Alexandria to the confines of Ethiopia. 
All along the Upper Nile, in the grottos that line its moun- 
tains, and that were excavated for burial-places by the old 
Egyptians, are traces of Coptic inscriptions and of rude 
monuments, showing that these were places of refuge for 
the early Christians when, like the saints of the Old Testa- 
ment, " they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in 
dens and caves of the earth." Others " were tortured, not 
accepting deliverance ; " and the graves of Christian mar- 
tyrs are said to have been found at Esne, near the ruins 
of a temple of the Caesars. The name of Diocletian in 
some of the refuges of the persecuted followers of Christ, 
points to the third century as a period of special suffering. 
"A persecution of the Christians in Thebais, under the 
emperor Septimius Severus, proves that Christianity had 
already made progress in Upper Egypt, as early as the last 
times of the second century. Probably in the first half of 
the third century, this province had a version of the New 
Testament in its own ancient dialect." * 

It was in Egypt, too, and its adjacent deserts, that the 
early Christian anchorites, moved by a quietism that would 
unhumanize- the gospel, and would subvert the family and 
the social state, or infected with the mystic notion that evil 
inheres in matter, and is to be vanquished by removing from 
all temptations of the flesh, copied the asceticism of the 
remoter East, and gave themselves up to pulse and penance 
among the rocks. Upon the Arabian side, within twenty 
miles of the Red Sea, St. Antony had his cave, where now 
a convent bears his name ; and several monasteries in simi- 
lar localities still attest the strange and sad perversion of the. 
Saviour's teachings respecting secret prayer and separation 

* Neander. 



312 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

from the world. Christ prayed not that his disciples might 
be taken out of the world, but that they might be kept from 
the evil that is in the world ; he did not teach them to flee 
from the world, but to overcome the world by a living, 
active faith. These monuments of monkery are a melan- 
choly illustration of the early corruption of Christianity, 
through the old heathen philosophy and customs that sur- 
rounded it. No doubt, many of the anchorites were moved 
by a sincere desire to make high attainments in persona, 
holiness, and to benefit the world by prayer, when perhaps 
persecution had denied them every other method. But I 
must confess that my charity for their misdirected pietism, 
and my sympathy for their privations, voluntary or imposed, 
have greatly lessened since I have seen that almost every- 
where their retreats in the mountains and the desert, over- 
looked the choicest plains of the Nile, and were within easy 
reach of its fatness ; and since I have found that coarse 
bread, with lentils and onions, makes a most palatable and 
digestible dish, upon which every Egyptian thrives. 

But while these hermit cells and monasteries mark the 
early decline of Christianity in its vital power, they also in- 
dicate in their history and their associations the progress of 
Christianity as a recognized religion. In the fourth century 
almost every principal town in Egypt had its adjacent con- 
vent as well as its central church ; for the century that was 
ushered in with Constantine, and was closed with Theodosius, 
— both styled " the Great," — saw Christianity enthroned 
in the seat of universal empire, and enshrined in the temples 
of forsaken gods. Egypt, which had shared the persecutions 
of Diocletian, now felt the protection of Constantine over 
her churches, her bishops, and her sacred schools. From 
Septimius Severus to Constantine, the Alexandrian school 
exerted upon Christianity the mystic and ascetic influence 
of its philosophy. The names of Origen, of Clemens Alex- 



EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT. 313 

andrinus, and of Dionysius, are permanently associated with 
the theology of that era. 

Athanasius, whose name is known in connection with his 
creed throughout the Holy Church Universal, was bishop of 
that same Alexandria which gave birth to ApoUos, and 
whose Catechetical School had already furnished Clemens 
and Origen with that generous culture, and that dialectic 
skill, which, conjoined with an earnest piety, have made 
them eminent among the Christian Fathers. At Alexandria 
was waged the great controversy of the fourth century, 
against the Ai'ian heresy, which was terminated by the adop- 
tion of the Nicene creed as a symbol for all Christendom. 
Indeed, this city became noted, under its Christian primates, 
for " speculative doctrines and religious controversy," as 
under the Ptolemies it had been noted for the " wisdom of 
the Egyptians." " The extensive commerce of Alexandria, 
and its proximity to Palestine, gave an easy entrance to the 
new religion. It was at first embraced by great numbers of 
the Theraputea or Essenians of the lake Mareotis, a Jewish 
sect which had abated much of its reverence for the Mosaic 
ceremonies. The austere life of the Essenians, their fasts 
and excommunications, the community of goods, the love of 
celibacy, their zeal for martyrdom, and the warmth though 
not the purity of their faith, already offered a very lively 
image of the primitive discipline. It was in the school of 
Alexandria that the Christian theology appears to have as- 
sumed a regular and scientific form; and when Hadrian, 
visited Egypt, he found a church composed of Jews and of 
Greeks, sufficiently important to attract the notice of that 
inquisitive prince. But the progress of Christianity was for 
a long time confined within the limits of a single city, which 
was itself a foreign colony, and, till the close of the second 
century, the predecessors of Demetrius were the only pre- 
lates of the Egyptian church. Three bishops were conse- 
27 



314 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

crated by the hands of Demetrius, and the number was 
increased to twenty by his successor, Heraclas. The body 
of the natives, a people distinguished by a sullen inflexibility 
of temper, entertained the new doctrine with coldness and 
reluctance, and even in the time of Origen it was rare to 
meet with an Egyptian who had surmounted his early pre- 
judices in favor of the sacred animals of his country. As 
soon indeed as Christianity ascended the throne, the zeal of 
those barbarians obeyed the prevailing impulsion, the cities 
of Egypt were filled with bishops, and the deserts of 
Thebais swarmed with hermits." * , 

" Christianity," says Bunsen, " endowed Alexandria with 
intellectual life and activity, constituted her the seat of the 
most learned and practical school of Christian doctrine, and 
by that means the metropolis of East African Christianity." 

In this same century, various Episcopal sees were estab- 
lished in Egypt, or, if previously established, were brought 
more into prominence. There was such a see at Athribis, 
an ancient city of the Pharaohs, on the Damietta branch of 
the Nile, forty miles north of the present capital. There 
was probably another in the vicinity of the Zoan of the 
Scriptures, at a place known by the distinctive name of the 
town " of the Christians ; " another at Narach on the Upper 
Nile, near the present Manfaloot, — one of several- places 
which claim to have been the refuge of Joseph and Mary 
with the infant Jesus ; another, probably, at Girgeh, a town 
of Christian name and origin ; one certainly at the ancient 
Antaopolis, seventy miles north; and another at Thebes, 
which was then converted into a Christian city. 

These Episcopal sees, together with the intervening con- 
vents in the neighborhood of all the principal towns, must 
have given to Egypt as much the aspect of a Christian 

* Gibbon, i. 577. 



EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT. S15 

country as Italy now wears. And, unfortunatelyj it was 
too much the same aspect; for that superstitions had 
akeady crept in, is apparent from the frescoes of apostles, 
saints, and martyrs, which are found upon the walls of early 
Christian churches in Egypt, and of the temples which the 
Christians appropriated to their use — just as these are 
everywhere in the Roman Catholic churches of Europe, 
Indeed, there is reason to believe that, at a very early 
period, the symbols and the myths of Paganism were 
grafted upon the Christian religion. A striking illustration 
of this is mentioned by the distinguished Egyptian antiqua- 
rian. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, as having been found at Old 
Cairo, or the Egyptian Babylon. In an upper chamber of 
a tower of the old Roman fortress in that city, " is an early 
Christian record, sculptured m wood, of the time of Diocle- 
tian, curious as well from its style as from the state of its 
preservation. The upper part, or frieze, has a Greek 
inscription, and below it, at the centre of the architrave, is 
a representation of the Deity, sitting on a globe, supported 
by two winged eagles, on either side of which is a proces- 
sion of six figures, evidently the twelve apostles. The cen- 
tral group readily calls to mind the winged globe of the 
ancient Egyptians, and its position over a doorway accords 
with the ordinary place of that well-knov/n emblem. In- 
deed, this is not the only instance of the adoption of old 
devices by the early Egyptian Christians ; the tau, or sign 
of life, was commonly used to head their inscriptions 
instead of the cross ; and it is not improbable that the disc 
or globe of the gods, gave rise to the glory over the heads 
of saints, who were frequently painted on a coat of stucco, 
that alone separated them from the deities, to whose tem- 
ples they succeeded." 

Lepsius informs us, that " in the niche of an ancient eel- 
la he found St. Peter, in the ancient Byzantine style, 



316 EGYPT, PAST AND PHESENT. 

holding the key, and raising his finger, but beneath the half- 
decayed Christian casing, the cow's horns of the goddess 
Hathor, the Egyptian Venus, peeped forth from behind the 
glory ; to her, originally, was given the incense and sacrifice 
of the king who is standing by her side, w^hich now are 
offered to the venerable apostle." 

In the great oasis of the Lybian desert, once extensively 
inhabited by Christians, who still have a convent within its 
borders, the same author found upon the tombs of the early 
Christians, instead of the cross, the Egyptian symbol of life, 
which resembles the letter T surmounted by the letter O — ^ 
(thus, 9) — a beautiful emblem, but far less expressive than 
the vine, the dove, the anchor, the palm, or the simple mon- 
ogram of Christ, found upon the contemporaneous tombs in 
the catacombs of Rome. In some of the catacombs before 
referred to, in the mountains on the shores of the Nile, are 
figures of saints painted on the walls, and niches cut into 
them, the work of the Christians who took refuge in them 
during the persecutions of the second and third centuries. 
And I have described at Thebes a large fresco of the fourth 
century, recently discovered upon the walls of an old Egyp- 
tian temple, which, in addition to the usual figures of the 
apostles, represents St. George — the patron saint of Egypt 
— mounted upon a horse, and contending with the dragon, 
the same subject which is rudely sculptured upon the Dom- 
hirche in which Erasmus preached at Basle, and which has 
been placed at the head of the saints' calendar in England. 
Such a picture in such a place, while it shows the affinity of 
the Christianity of that age with the Paganism to which it 
had succeeded, shows also how completely it had supplanted 
Paganism in its relations to the state. The old idolatry and 
the old royalty were closely interlinked. The priest and 
the king went hand in hand. The king built the temple, 
and the priests engaged its divinities to honor and to uphold 



EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT. 317 

the king. Imagine, then, the utter subversion of the old 
idolatry in its outward relations, when the temples built at 
such cost and with such magnificence by the Pharaohs and 
the Ptolemies, for the worship of Amun, of Isis, of Osiris, 
and the other divinities of their mythology, were occupied 
as Christian churches, their walls being first defaced, or 
covered with the emblems of the new religion. But at 
Thebes, besides the painting just mentioned, are rude 
crosses and figures of Christ and the apostles depicted upon 
another temple ; and in the very heart of the great temple 
of Medeenet Habou the remains of a church built there 
when this was the see of a Greek bishop, just as at the 
reformation in Scotland, Presbyterian conventicles were 
built within the demolished walls of the old abbeys of the 
monks. Other smaller temples, built upon the mountains 
to the west of Thebes, were converted into convents, and in 
this neighborhood have been found the remains of a Greek 
inscription, which is the copy of " a letter from Athanasius, 
Archbishop of Alexandria, to the orthodox monks." 

At Goptos, a city lying to the north of Thebes, and which 
succeeded it as the mart of Indian commerce, the materials 
of the old pagan temples were taken to build a Christian 
church, of which there are still some remains. The same 
was the case at Erment, to the south of Thebes, where are 
the ruins of a large church. At Philas, which was the holy 
place of Egyj)t, are also evidences that the early Christians 
converted the temples into churches, "concealing with a 
coat of clay or mortar the objects of worship of their pagan 
predecessors," while tliroughout Nubia it is equally apparent 
that the edifices of Egyptian gods were transformed into the 
shrines of Christian saints. 

- But the supremacy of the Christian religion in Egypt at 
this era, is most strikingly evidenced by the edicts of the 
Emperor Theodosius for the destruction of the temple of 
27* 



318 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

Serapis at Alexandria, and for th.e abolition of his worship, 
as he had also abolished the Eleusinian mysteries at Athens. 
Serapis was the deity worshipped by the pagan Greeks and 
Romans of Alexandria. He was probably but a new form 
of the great Egyptian Osiris. The extent to which he was 
worshipped may be inferred from the statement of the Em- 
peror Adrian, who visited Egypt in a. d. 122, and again in 
A. D. 130. He says of the citizens of Alexandria, " They 
have one god (Serapis), whom the Christians, Jews, and 
Gentiles worship. Those who call themselves followers of 
Christ pay their devotions to Serapis ; every chief of a 
Jewish synagogue, every Samaritan, each Christian priest, 
the mathematicians, soothsayers, and physicians in the gym- 
nasia, all acknowledged Serapis. The Patriarch himself, 
whenever he goes into Egypt, is obliged by some to worship 
Serapis, by others Christ." * 

As respects the Christians, probably this statement of a 
heathen, though a tolerant emperor, is exaggerated and not 
very discriminating. Some nominal Christians may have 
acknowledged Serapis as the great divinity of Alexandria, 
just as some in the early church at Corinth leaned to their 
old idolatry ; but that the Christians generally worshipped 
Serapis is hardly consistent with their zeal in later years 
for the destruction of his temple. This event is thus elo- 
quently described by the historian Gibbon. "The pious 
indignation of Theophilus, the then Governor of Alexandria, 
was directed against the debasing rites with which this deity 
was worshipped, and the insults which he offered to an ancient 
chapel of Bacchus convinced the pagans that he meditated 
a more important and dangerous enterprise. In the tumultu- 
ous capital of Egypt, the slightest provocation was sufficient 
to inflame a civil war. The votaries of Serapis, whose 

* Quoted by Wilkinson. 



DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATRY. 319 

strength and numbers were much inferior to those of their 
antagonists, rose in arms at the instigation of the philosopher 
Olympius, who exhorted them to die in defence of the altars 
of the gods. These- pagan fanatics fortified themselves in 
the temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis, repelled the be- 
siegers by daring sallies and a resolute defence ; and, by the 
inhuman cruelties which they exercised on their Christian 
prisoners, obtained the last consolation of despair. The 
efforts of the prudent magistrate were usefully exerted for 
the establishment of a truce, till the answer of Theodosius 
should determine the fate of Serapis. The two parties 
assembled without arms in the principal square, and the 
imperial rescript was publicly read. But when a sentence 
of destruction against the idols of Alexandria was pro- 
nounced, the Christians set up a shout of joy and exultation, 
whilst the unfortunate pagans, whose fury had given way to 
consternation, retired with hasty and silent steps, and eluded 
by their flight or obscurity the resentment of their enemies. 
Theophilus proceeded to demolish the temple of Serapis, 
without any other difiiculties than those which he found in 
the weight and solidity of the materials ; but these obstacles 
proved so insuperable that he was obliged to leave the foun- 
dations, and to content himself with reducmg the edifice 
itself to a heap of rubbish, a part of which was soon after 
cleared away, to make room for a church erected in honor 
of the Christian martyrs. The colossal statue of Serapis 
was involved in the ruin of his temple and religion. A 
great number of plates of different metals, artificially joined 
together, composed the majestic figure of the deity, who 
touched on either side the walls of the sanctuary. The 
huge idol was overthrown and broken to pieces, and the 
parts of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through the 
streets of Alexandria." 

Such was the final inauguration of Christianity in Egypt 



820 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

over the prostrate idolatry of more tlian two thousand years. 
But the emperor, who demolished superstition in one form, 
fostered it in another, as in his mission to John the Hermit, 
of Wolf-town. The liberty and the diversity of worship 
always allowed to the cities and nomes of the Nile valley, 
favored the dissemination there of a new religion, backed by 
imperial authority. 

Down to the time of the Arab conquest, Christianity 
retained its nominal hold upon Egypt, and the churches 
and convents of the Copts were numerous and flourishing. 
Then followed persecution and a religious war of extermi- 
nation on the part of the Mohammedan conqueror. 

■After the Arab came the Turk, as the nominal con- 
queror and ruler of Egypt, — though it was not till the 
eighteenth century that the Osmanli finally came into the 
occupation of the country which they had held in fealty 
for centuries, — and thus without changing her religion, 
Egypt changed her foreign master for at least the fifth 
time since the decree went forth that ^Hhere shall he no 
more a prince or native dynasty of the land of Egypt." 
(Ezek. XXX. 13.) 

The only impression made upon Egypt by the crusaders 
in the middle ages, was the capture and the sacking of a 
few towns in the Delta, while it was from Egypt that 
Saladin went forth, who retook Jerusalem from the crusa- 
ders, A. D. 1187. From that time till the final Turkish 
invasion, the Mohammedan kings of Egypt held almost 
uninterrupted possession of the Holy Land, — sometimes 
extending their dominion eastward to the borders of the 
Euphrates. The mosque of Omar occupies the site of the 
temple of Solomon at Jerusalem, and in the land of Egypt, 
from which Solomon drew so largely his supplies, the 
mosque supplants alike the pagan temple and the Christian 
church. 



DESTRUCTION OF IDOLATRY. 321 

This review of the rehgious history of Egypt impresses 
the mind with the fact of a retributive Providence in the 
government of nations. The Bible is full of this doctrine, 
and history is pregnant with its illustration. Take Ezekiel for 
a text, and Egypt for a comment. No doubt natural causes 
can be traced that contributed to this destruction. But in 
the height of its prosperity, Ezekiel predicted for Egypt a 
ruin as remote from all human calculation as is now the 
desolation of London or of New York. And the reason 
given is the pride and self-sufficiency, the idolatry and 
unrighteousness of Egypt, — her departure from the Lord. 
Egypt knew the true God ; in the time of Abraham, in the 
time of Joseph, in the time of Moses, when these men 
of God were near the person of the monarch. But Egypt 
rejected the Lord, and the Lord rejected her. " Tliem that 
honor me I will honor ^ and they that despise me shall he lightly 
esteemed" This is a great lesson for America to ponder. If 
the people of the United States grow proud of their political 
and commercial strength, and put their trust in these, and 
especially if for the sake of these they sacrifice or neglect 
any principle of national justice, or any claim of equity 
or of humanity, the God who smote Egypt and Persia and 
Greece and Rome will assuredly smite them also. " These 
things happened to them for ensamples ; and they are 
written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the 
world are come." 

This lesson is the more impressive from the fact that in 
Egypt Christianity attained to influence and dominion, trans- 
formed the temples of the old idolatry into sanctuaries for 
the worship of the true God, and had in her hands the 
moulding of the nations ; but proved false to her trust, 
baptized the divinities and the superstitions of heathenism 
and adopted them as her own, became degenerate and 
corrupt, ministered to the ambition of the few at the cost of 



322 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

the degradation of the many, revived a priesthood that 
Christ had superseded by fulfilling all its offices in himself, 
and at length required to be swept away by the fiery deluge 
of the Mohammedan invasion. 



CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

HOPE FOR EGYPT THE COPTS, THEIR HISTORY AND 

RITUAL — A PLEA FOR MISSIONS. 

Christianity, though decayed and withered in the land of 
Egypt, is not yet extinct. It is an interesting and a most 
significant fact, that, notwithstanding the persecutions they 
have endured from pagan emperors and from Mohammedan 
kings, nearly all the original stock of the country that 
remain at this day are nominal Christians. These are known 
as Copts, and they claim to have preserved intact the blood 
of the ancient Egyptians, through all the changes of their 
country ; — a claim not without reason, since neither the 
Persians, the Greeks, nor the Romans supplanted the orig- 
inal inhabitants of the country, and since religious preju- 
dices have been a barrier to the intermarriage of Moham- 
medans and Christians. 

Latham classifies the ancient Egyptians as Atlantidcs: 
" hair fine, and either waved or curly ; skull with an upright 
frontal, and a moderately depressed nasal profile; color 
darker than that of the Greek, lighter than that of the Nu- 
bian ; perhaps brown with tinges of yellow and red." " Copts: 
hair black and crisp or curled ; cheek-bones projecting ; lips 
thick ; nose somewhat depressed ; nostrils wide ; complexion 
varied from a yellowish to a dark brown ; eyes oblique ; 
frame tall and fleshy ; physiognomy heavy and inexpressive." 

The Arab tradition is, that Copt was a son of Mizraim — 
the second son of Ham, who built Egypt — and that, having 



324 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

wrested from his brothers their share of the patrimony, he 
gave his name to the whole country. The Arabs now call 
a Copt Gupt, from Coptos, gupta, meaning inclosed, guarded, 
fortified, which is also the signification of Mizraim, a fortress. 
From Copt and Cophti, Egypt and Egyptians are easily 
derived. Though speaking the Arabic, the Copts also retain 
their original language, which has marked affinities with 
the Hebrew, and with the whole Shemitic family. Thus the 
Zoan of the Scriptures, called Tanis by the Greeks, and 
San or Zan by the Ai-abs, is called Gani by the Copts"; the 
Ham or Khem of the Hebrew Scriptures, is Ghem in the 
Coptic ; the ancient Syene of the Scriptures, now the Assuan 
of the Arabs, is, in the Coptic, Souan. A version of the 
Scriptures was very early made in this language, manuscript 
copies of which may be seen in the Coptic convents and 
churches. 

In the city of Cairo there are about sixty thousand Copts, 
in a population of two hundred thousand ; and from what I 
have seen of them in the towns and villages of the Upper 
Nile, I should think that there are as many more scattered 
through the country, equal in all to one fifteenth part of the 
whole population. A large proportion of the villagers at 
Thebes, on both sides of the Nile, are Copts. The religious 
condition of so numerous a body of professed Christians, is 
of itself a matter of interest, apart from their relations to 
the Mohammedan population around them, and to the future 
evangelization of their own country. 

Both in their ecclesiastical organization, in their doctrinal 
behef, and in their church usages and mode of worship, the 
Copts have departed less from the New Testament than 
have the Roman Catholics. The government of the Coptic 
Church is Episcopal. Its head is a patriarch, who is elected 
from among the fathers of one of the principal monasteries, 
and who now resides at Cairo. In tliis respect, the Coptic 



THE COPTS, THEIK HISTORY AND KITUAL. 325 

Church corresponds with the Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, 
and otli,er oriental churches, which have never acknowl- 
edged the supremacy of the Pope. The Abyssinian branch 
of the Coptic Church is under the superintendence of a 
7nutrdn, who is now the only dignitary of , that name, and 
who, at his death, is succeeded by another from Cairo, 
appointed by the patriarch, and sent in chains to his see, in 
token of his dependence upon the head of the church. 

Besides this patriarch and the mutrdii, I cannot learn 
with certainty how many others now exercise episcopal 
functions m the Coptic Church. There is a Coptic bishop 
at Osioot, and others in other chief towns, perhaps twelve 
in all. 

Next in rank to a bishop, is the superior of a monastery, 
called a Commos. " Each community of monks is gov- 
erned by a superior ; some of the monks are priests, with 
the title of father, and the rest lay brethren." The 
monks are not permitted to marry, nor is a female permit- 
ted to enter the walls of a monastery even as a visitor. A 
widower, however, if he is determined to abide in that con- 
dition, may be received as a member of the community. 
PriestS) not under monastic vows, are allowed in the Coptic, 
as in the Greek and the Armenian churches, to marry 
once; and in the convents, where the priests are not 
monks, but seculars, the inmates are of both sexes. Of 
course the convents are open to lady visitors. 

It is said that the number of monasteries and convents in 
Egypt and its deserts formerly amounted to three hundred 
and sixty-six, some of which had numerous inmates, and, 
in connection with their founders or their superiors, en- 
joyed a world-wide reputation for learning and for sanctity. 
Gibbon mentions fifty in the Natron Valley alone, on the 
confines of the Lybian Desert, to the north or west of the 
Delta, in one of which " the ambitious Cyril passed some 
28 



326 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. ' 

years, under the restraints of a monastic life." Now there 
are but four monasteries in that valley, which contain, in 
all, only about seventy-five inmates ; there is a fifth at 
Gebel Koskran, in Upper Egypt ; and there are two in the 
Eastern Desert, near the Red Sea, which are all the mon- 
asteries proper remaining in the country. The same his- 
torian informs us, that " the Desert of Nitria was peopled 
by five thousand monks ; " and that in the fourth century, 
" Valens gave these deserters of society the alternative of 
renouncing their temporal possessions, or of discharging the 
pubhc duties of men and citizens." 

The " monastery of St. Anthony," in the Eastern Desert, 
about eighteen miles from the Red Sea, has a historical 
reputation from the name of its founder; and since the 
patriarch of the whole Coptic Church is now elected from 
among its fathers, it may be considered " the principal 
monastery in Egypt." This probably presents the best 
specimen of a Coptic community, and with its respectable 
library, its well kept and fruitful garden, and its grand 
scenery of the mountains, the desert, and the sea, the most 
inviting picture of monastic life*. 

The convents of Egypt have also greatly decreased in 
number and in importance. Of these there are three at 
Cairo, and two at Old Cairo, near by ; one at Alexandria, 
which pretends to possess the head and body of Mark the 
Evangelist, notwithstanding their alleged removal to Venice; 
and some twenty or more on the Upper Nile, together with 
some half a dozen in the Fyoom and the Oasis of the 
Lybian Desert, once the abode of thousands of Christians. 
In some of these convents, ignorance and superstition have 
usurped the place of whatever of learning and of piety they 
may once have possessed. 

Travellers who have visited others, speak of their com- 
munities as being simple-hearted and well-disposed, though 



THE COPTS, THEIR HISTORY AND RITUAL. 327 

often ignorant and superstitious. The convents and their 
precincts abound in rude pictures of the apostles and saints, 
with crosses and other emblems. St. George is their tute- 
lary saint, who is represented on a white horse, contending 
with a green dragon. At the Copt convent at Birbeh, on 
the Upper Nile, this saint sometimes represents a Moslem 
sheik destroying the infidels, — a device of the priests to 
save their church from outrage in times of Moslem persecu- 
tion. 

Sir Gardner Wilkinson describes the monks of the Na- 
tron Valley, who, till a recent period, elected the patriarch 
of the Coptic Church, as " ignorant even of the history of 
their church," and " little interested about the ruined abodes 
of their predecessors." At the " White Monastery," near 
Ekhmim, a large building of hewn stone, dating from the 
time of the Empress Helena, he found the usual representa- 
tions of St. George, one of which a little worldly wisdom 
lias there also transformed into a Moslem sheik. 

But enough of the convents and monasteries of the Copts. 
These native Christians appear to better advantage in their 
towns and villages. The monasteries and_ convents were 
built for seclusion; and frequent persecutions have con- 
verted them into virtual fortresses, whose inmates live in 
fear of predatory Arabs, and in suspicion of strangers. But 
in the villages, the Coptic people are open and free, and 
with all their superstitions, give marked evidences of their 
superiority to their Moslem neighbors. Some villages on 
the Upper Nile are inhabited almost ex:clusively by Copts, 
while in others they form a considerable part of the popula- 
tion. Near Cairo is a Coptic village known as "the Con- 
vents ; " a town once built by them opposite Minieh is now 
deserted ; but there are many Copts in Minieh itself, — a 
place of extensive sugar factories ; further to the south, the 
villages of Byadeeh and el Korsayr are inhabited by Copts, 



328 . EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

and much of the intervening district, on both sides of the 
river, is cuhivated by them. And here I can fully indorse 
the remark of Mr. Wilkinson, that " in examining the fields, 
particularly about Byadeeh, one is forcibly struck with the 
superiority of the Copt over the Moslem fellah, (peasant,) 
all that relates to irrigation being much better managed 
there than in other parts of the country." In walking 
through the villages of this district, one is struck also with 
the superior style of the houses, the better arrangement of 
the streets, the general aspect, of comfort, and the marked 
civility of the people. Still further south, the large town of 
Manfaloot, once a bishop's see, numbers some two hundred 
Copts, with priests and a church ; and Osiout, the capital of 
Upper Egypt, is still the residence of a bishop. The dark 
turban of the Copt is seen frequently in its streets, and 
sometimes graces such perfect features, such soulful eyes, 
and a complexion so rich and beautiful, as to realize the 
poetic ideal of the human face divine. Girgeh, the former 
capital of Upper Egypt, was founded by the Copts, and 
was named from their patron saint, George. This town had 
formerly " the largest and most opulent monastery " in all 
Egypt, " inhabited by upwards of two hundred monks, who 
possessed much land in the neighborhood. They supplied 
food to all travellers ; and so great was the amount of their 
revenues, that they annually sent a large sum to the 
Patriarch of Cairo, to be distributed among the poor of 
their own persuasion." These monks were swept away by 
the plague, after which their property was seized, and now 
but about thirty occupy the reduced establishment. Many 
Copts are here met in the streets, but a considerable number 
have been perverted to the Roman Catholic Church, of 
whose operations in Egypt I have already spoken. At 
Negadeh, near Thebes, are twenty-five hundred Copts, with 
two churches and a convent. 



THE COPTS, THEIR HISTORY AND RITUAL. 329 

In all the towns and villages where they are found, the 
Copts appear well dressed, intelligent, industrious, and in 
all respects superior to the great body of the population. 
Indeed, I do not remember to have seen a beggar among 
them. Many of them can read and write, and their 
children are generally taught in both the Coptic and the 
Arabic languages. The children write with ink upon plates 
of sheet tin, and I have seen some very pretty specimens 
of their penmanship, the lines running, as in all oriental 
languages, from right to left. The fact that the profession 
of Scribes is almost universally in the hands of the Copts, 
shows their superior education ; though Mr. Stephens styles 
this an " inferior, if not degrading profession." I am 
surprised that an American should place a respectable clerk, 
who can read and write, below a conceited official who can 
do neither. To me the fact that the Copts are so generally 
employed by the Moslems to keep their accounts, and to do 
whatever writing they may need, is very far from stamping 
them as " a race of degraded beggars, lifeless and soulless," 
. . . . " living as slaves in the land where their fathers 
reigned as masters." 

At a large sugar factory belonging to the Pasha, at 
Minieh, I noticed that all the secretaries, or bookkeepers, 
as we should call them, were Copts, while most of the other 
employees were Mohammedans. The Copts were evidently 
put at the head of the estabhshment, because they were the 
only persons competent for such a post. Each scribe wore 
in his girdle a long narrow brass box, or shaft, terminating 
at one end in an inkstand, and tilled with sharpened reeds. 
This no doubt answers to the "writer's inkhorn," which 
Ezekiel mentions as carried by the side or upon the loins ; 
and is certainly a more honorable badge than the short 
sword and the horse pistol of the Janissary, worn in like 
manner in the girdle. 

28* 



330 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

At another factory belonging to the government, I saw a 
Coptic scribe seated on the ground, with a number of 
Mohammedan workmen about him, whose names he was 
calling in order to pay them their wages; and at other 
places I have seen a Copt wearing an inkhorn, summoned 
when a little writing was to be done, — for in Egypt the 
writer hangs out his sign from his girdle. The instruction 
of the children of Mohammedans is usually confined to 
learning by rote a few precepts from the Koran, and hence 
there are not many of these who can use the pen. The 
fact of the employment of Copts as scribes has been favora- 
bly noticed by other travellers. The " Mission of Inquiry 
from the Church of Scotland," which passed through Egypt 
some ten years since, on their way to Palestine, allude to it 
in their journal in the following terms. At El Arish, they 
say, " the governor was interrogating a native Christian who 
stood by. This man was a Christian Copt. He told us in 
broken Italian that he was rejoiced to meet us, because, 
being almost the only Christian in the place, he is much 
despised. He wore a writer's inkhorn by his side, which 
intimates that the person is so far superior to the gen- 
erality, that he can at least read and write. At our 
request, the Copt took out his reeds and wrote very 
elegantly. On one of his arms he showed us the figure 
of Christ on the cross, and the Virgin Mary, punctured, 
apparently, either with henna, or gunpowder." I have 
frequently had Copts show me the same sign. 

Many of the Copts, like the Armenians in Turkey, are 
wealthy merchants. It is the testimony of Polybius, who 
visited Egypt in the second century before Christ, that the 
native Egyptians were " a keen and civilized race ; " and 
two thousand years of oppression under foreign masters 
have not wholly eflfaced these traits. The Copts are still 
"keen and civilized," in comparison with Egyptians who 



A PLEA FOR MISSIONS. 331 

have sprung from an Arab or a Turkish stock. A few 
examples will illustrate their present commercial position. 
In Egypt the same system of customs exists as in France ; 
not only are duties levied upon foreign imports on entering 
the country, but an additional tax is levied upon goods 
brought into the principal cities. There is a tariff between 
Alexandria and Cairo, as well as between Alexandria and 
the rest of the world. The duties for Cairo are collected at 
its port of Boulak, and " the whole are farmed by some 
wealthy Copt or Armenian merchant." The ability to 
assume such a responsibility argues much wealth among 
these Christian merchants. The Copts occupy a separate 
quarter in Cairo, and have some valuable shops in the 
bazaar ; some of their houses are said to be fitted up in a 
very comfortable manner. At Menzaleh, whose lake affords 
the principal fisheries of Egypt, the whole business is 
farmed from the government by some wealthy " Christian 
speculators ; " and every morning " a Turkish overseer and 
a Christian scribe" repair to the spot where the boats 
discharge their cargoes, to take an account of each and to 
pay the fishermen. Here, again, no small capital is needed, 
but it seems the native Christians have both the capital and 
the enterprise for such a business. In short, where business 
tact and enterprise are required, and where business thrift 
is evidenced, the difference between the Copts and their 
Moslem neighbors is as striking as between the Protestant 
and the Roman Catholic countries of Europe. The Copts 
are even now the best race on the soil of Egypt. 

I cannot doubt that they have been so long preserved a 
separate people, as tenacious as the Jews of their language 
and their religion, because of some special design of Provi- 
dence for the revival of Christianity through them in Egypt 
and in Ethiopia, and the evangelization of the vast interior 
of Africa. And 1 deem it of the utmost importance that a 



332 EGYPT, PAST AND PEESENT. 

MISSION should be sent to Egypt by Christians in the 
United States, to visit the Copts wherever they can be 
found, to gather facts respecting their condition, to acquaint 
them with the condition of the American churches, to revive 
in their minds the primitive truths of the Gospel and the 
spirit of the primitive Christians, to introduce among them 
religious books and tracts, and to encourage family religion 
and Christian education, and thus to prepare the way for 
such a permanent work among these Copts as has been 
established among the Armenians and the Nestorians, and 
has there been so signally blessed of God. Such a mission 
should consist of at least two persons, well versed in church 
history and institutions, as well as in the Scriptures, affable 
and discreet, shrewd and discriminating, single-hearted and 
simple-hearted in their devotion to Christ and His cause. 
One of them certainly should be able to speak Arabic 
fluently, and one of them should have a knowledge of 
medicine, and especially of the treatment of dysentery and 
ophthalmia — the prevailing diseases of Egypt. 

The practice of medicine in Egypt, out of Alexandria 
and Cairo, is almost entirely in the hands of barbers and 
derwishes — a set of religious enthusiasts ; but the impres- 
sion is becoming general among the people, that the Franks 
have a knowledge of all diseases, and are skilful in the 
treatment of them. We have been repeatedly applied to 
for medical advice, both by our crew and by villagers, and 
though our prescriptions have never ranged beyond Daily's 
Pain Extractor for wounds and bruises, and a little camphor 
or red pepper well disguised in hot water and sugar, for 
colds and inward pains, they have always worked like a 
charm ! One man, with whose chronic dyspepsia we would 
not meddle, offered sheep, goats, oxen, any thing for a cure. 
A judicious physician would pave the way for a missionary 
teacher ; but at first he should not attempt the cure of doubt- 



A PLEA FOR MISSIONS. 333 

ful cases, for a death under his hands would only exasperate 
a people so ignorant of science, so strong in their prejudices, 
and so full of superstitions. 

That my earnestness is not a zeal without knowledge, will 
appear from the following incident. As I was walking one 
day on the bank of the Upper Nile, I met a well-dressed, 
intelligent looking man, whom I took to be a Copt, who 
answered my salamat (" salutations ") with more than the 
usual cordiality of the natives, and immediately tendered me 
his pipe. I asked him if he was a Copt Christian, to which 
he answered in the affirmative, at the same time showing me 
the cross punctured into his arm. As there were several 
Mussulmen around, he walked on towards our boat, some 
half a mile in advance. When we were out of their hearing, 
I said to him " Mohammed mafeesh " (Mohammed nothing, 
or No Mohammed). He repeated the name Mohammed 
and spit at it in token of his contempt. I then made the 
cross with my fingers, uttered the name of Christ and 
pointed to the heart, to which he fully responded. I never 
so longed for the gift of tongues, as while walking by the 
side of a professed Christian, who was accompanying me 
from mere good-will, without being able to speak a word of 
our common Lord. When we reached the boat I learned 
from him, through an interpreter, that there were several 
Copts in the neighborhood ; that they had the Bible and 
schools for their children, and that they would welcome 
among them a missionary from America. A similar wel- 
come at Negadeh, I have already described. 

On Easter Sunday I attended service at sunrise iu the 
Coptic church at Cairo. I cannot describe to others what 
was in a great measure unintelligible to myself, but will 
give a brief outline of the service, which lasted for more 
than two hours. The church is a plain building about 
ninety feet by sixty. It is divided by screens of wood into 



334 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

several compartments. First, near tlie door at the front of 
the building, is a section appropriated to the women, who 
are entirely screened from view, and can only look upon the 
service through a close lattice-work. Next is a room about 
forty by sixty, with a low screen running crosswise through 
the centre, and a high screen on its inner boundary ; here is 
another apartment thirty by sixty, containing the reading- 
desk, etc., and beyond this are screened rooms containing 
the altar, the priests' vestments, and the tombs of deceased 
priests. Thus there are two principal apartments or sections 
for males, and one for females. The screens may be partly 
opened by means of doors. 

When I entered, I was beckoned forward to a vacant spot 
near the reading-desk, where I sat down upon the floor with 
the rest, until a chair was brought to me. This section was 
carpeted ; the others were covered with mats ; several hun- 
dred persons were present, all seated on the floor. Two of 
the officiating priests sat on the floor by my side. 

The service was wholly liturgical and ceremonial. A 
priest would chant awhile from a book, and a chorus of boys 
would respond, and then the whole congregation would join, 
while a pair of cymbals rudely beat the time. Again, a 
little boy would chant, and the congregation would join in 
the chorus. The Scriptures were read in the lessons for 
the day. After this, the priest entered the sanctum and 
stood before the altar, where the censer, which had already 
been used to sprinkle his books and his vestments, was 
swung until the whole space was filled with incense. Before 
him on the altar was a vase, from which he removed several 
cloths, holding them up in pairs to be sprinkled with incense, 
and then muttered a low chant, to which the boys responded. 
At length the vase was uncovered, and disclosed a picture 
of Christ, at sight of which the congregation, who had risen 
during the chanting, crossed themselves and bowed their 



A TLEA FOR MISSIONS. 335 

heads. Finally, to my surprise and horror, the priest lifted 
up the consecrated elements, just as I saw the Pope do at 
Rome on Christmas day, and marched with them through 
the church, while here, as in St. Peter's, the people un- 
covered their heads and bowed to the ground. Then the 
cymbals struck up, the brethren embraced each other, and a 
procession of collectors with candles and baskets, and of 
heggars, passed through the congregation. Several times 
the subalterns bowed before the priest, and kissed the ground 
and received his benediction. The little boys w^ho assisted 
in the service did the same, and I was amused to see one 
little fellow, about five years old, watch his chance, and go 
through the ceremony. The congregation was utterly void 
of seriousness. A boy made a mistake in reading, and the 
priest began the wrong lesson for the day ; both were cor- 
rected by several voices, and this caused a titter, in which 
the priests joined. I saw a priest at the desk, in the midst 
of the service, getting a piastre changed into coppers against 
the approach of the beggars' procession. The whole service 
was formalism, without even the element of superstition 
found in Roman Catholic churches to give it an air of de- 
votion. Throughout, there was loud talking and confusion. 
The church has rude pictures of Christ, the Apostles, the 
Virgin Mary, and St. George and the Dragon. Before 
some of these are altars and shrines. 

I was grieved to find the Copts so much further gone in 
formalism than I had supposed. Their worship differs from 
that of the Romanists, in giving more prominence' to the 
Scriptures, and in allowing the people to participate in the 
chants. But the priest is evidently honored as a holy 
character, he officiates with his back to the people, rever- 
ence is paid to the pictures, and the host is adored. 

This will show the folly of attempting to resuscitate such 
a church upon its present foundation, or by an agency that 



336 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

symbolizes with it. There must be reformation, not eccle- 
siastical " fraternization," but thorough evangelization, which 
must issue in the separation of the false from the true. 
Rev. Mr. Leider has done good among the Copts ; but his 
theological school is abandoned, and the young men whom 
he had instructed, refuse on conscientious grounds to enter 
the priesthood of their corrupted church. His school for 
boys is abandoned for want of means and helpers, though 
Mrs. Leider continues that for girls, which embraces both 
Copts and Mohammedans. The way is open, therefore, for 
ncAv agencies, without infringing upon other men's labors or 
undervaluing their work. A firman from the Sultan should 
be procured before entering the field. 

Shall not this land, where Abraham sojourned, and 
where Jacob died, where Joseph was exalted, and where 
Moses was born and nurtured, — this land that gave a refuge 
to the infant Jesus from the wrath of Herod, and that in 
after years was itself baptized with the blood of the saints, — 
shall not this land hail the day when " the Lord shall be 
known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord 
.... whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying. Blessed 
be Egypt my people ? " 

I am happy to state that Rca^. Dr. Paulding, the esteemed 
missionary of the Reformed- Presbyterian Church, now at 
Damascus, contemplates an early removal to Cairo; and 
also, that the American Missionary Association has resolved 
to establish a mission among the Copts. The recent ad- 
vances of the Sultan toward the full religious freedom of 
his subjects, renders this new field one of special interest and 
promise. 

Lord ! thine ancient churches spare, 
Which still thy name, though fallen, bear; 
Whci'e once thy bold apostles stood. 
And sealed thy truth with martyr's blood. 



A PLEA FOR MISSIONS. 337 

Where now the Turk in darkness reigns, 
To cui'se with blight Earth's fairest plains — 
There let again thy Gospel shine, 
With beams all bright and power divine. 

Where Jesus ros.e and left the grave, 
There let the Cross its banner wave ; 
While Syria sees her churches rise. 
And hymns to Christ ascend the skies. 

Let Nubia's desert hear once more 
The Saviour's voice,"His love implore; 
Egypt Thy sacred Word um-oU, 
And find that grace which saves the soul. 



29 



CHAPTER XL, 

HELIOPOLIS, THE CITY OF JOSEPH — THE PYRAMIDS 
AND SPHINX EGYPT A SEPULCHRE. 

To the classical and the Biblical scholar, the most inter- 
esting remains of old Egypt are those of Heliopolis, about 
nine miles north-east of Cairo. This city is referred to in 
the Scriptures under the three names of On, Aven, and 
Bethshemesh — the latter corresponding with the Greek 
Heliopolis, and the Egyptian Ei-Re, meaning the " House 
of the Sun." Here was a " fountain of the sun," in con- 
nection with which a splendid temple was built, with the 
usual adornments of propyla and avenues of sphinxes. 
Heliopolis was a city of small dimensions, but its celebrity 
arose from the fact that it was the university-city, the 
Oxford of ancient Egypt, where, in connection with the 
temple, were schools of philosophy and science, under the 
care of the priests. 

Its interest to the Biblical student lies in the fact, that it 
can be certainly identified with the Old Testament narra- 
tive of Joseph. When Pharaoh exalted Joseph, " he gave 
him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest [or 
prince, governor,] of On" Gen. xli. 45. It is certain, there- 
fore, that Joseph often visited this city, and probable that 
he had a residence here, as well as at the capital on the 
other side of the river. And I have noticed in this con- 
nection, a striking corroboration of the Bible narrative, in 
the remaining ruins of Heliopolis. That narrative mentions 



HELIOPOLIS. 339 

a city of On in the time of Joseph, and that the Pharaoh 
who honored Joseph gave him his wife from the first family 
of that city. Now, it is generally agreed by antiquarians, 
that the name of the monarch who was contemporary with 
Joseph was Osirtasen I., and upon the ruins of the temple 
of the Sun at On, the cartouche of Osirtasen I., with his 
name in hieroglyphics, has been discovered, and other evi- 
dences that the temple of the Sun was founded by that 
Pharaoh. Here is proof, then, graven in granite, that the 
city of On did exist in the time of the Pharaoh who hon- 
ored Joseph, and that the monarch had such relations 
toward that city and its temple, as might naturally lead him 
to bestow upon a favorite the daughter of its priest, or 
governor. 

It is most probable that at HeKopolis — the Egyptian 
university — Moses became learned in all the wisdom of 
the Egyptians. Tradition points to the island of Rhoda, as 
the place where the infant Moses was exposed. This is 
opposite old Cairo, the Egyptian Babylon. But there is 
nothing in history, or in the locality, to justify this reference. 
It is, however, most probable, that Heliopolis was the place 
of his education. The obelisks at Alexandria, called Cleo- 
patra's Needles, were removed from HeliopoHs, and they 
contain the cartouches of the Pharaohs who were contem- 
porary with Moses. 

To the classical scholar, the special interest of Heliopolis 
lies in the fact, that Plato spent thirteen years in this city, 
under the tuition of the priests. Is it not possible that 
some knowledge of the true God, lingering from the time 
of Joseph and of Moses, was here communicated to him, 
and subsequently wrought into his philosophy? Greece 
here went to school to Egypt. 

The only remains of HeliopoHs, now visible, are an 
obelisk some seventy feet high, and in tolerable preserva- 



34:0 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

tion, tliougli the mud-wasps have obscured many of its 
hieroglyphics with their nests ; and besides this, the remains 
of a few sphinxes and columns scattered over the plain. 
The Nile has deposited at least ten feet of soil upon the 
ruins of the ancient city, and has receded nearly a mile 
from its old channel. 

Jeremiah predicted that a conqueror from the east — the 
king of Babylon — should "break the images of Bethshe- 
mesh, that is in the land of Egypt," and should " burn with 
fire the houses of the gods." And history records that Cam- 
byses, the Persian, was the destroyer of Hehopolis or 
Bethshemesh ; the house or temple of the sun. 

In the neighborhood of Heliopolis is a beautiful garden, 
whose main attraction is a large sycamore tree, which is 
said to have sheltered the holy family when they fled into 
Egypt. The tree has certainly renewed its youth, and its 
wide spread branches afford a grateful shelter, both to the 
contemplative and to the hungry visitor. 

It was fortunate that a visit to the pyramids was 
reserved for the JinaU to our tour of Egypt. We had 
gazed for hours upon these wondrous masses, in sailing up 
and down the river, and we had studied their proportions, 
and their relative position from the citadel of Cairo, but it 
was not till the day of discharging our boat upon our return 
from Upper Egypt, that we found an opportunity to visit 
them. 

The road to the pyramids from Ghizeh, opposite old 
Cairo, is extremely beautiful, lying through groves of palms, 
and over cultivated plains, with the grand monuments of 
four thousand years bounding the horizon. As we rode in 
the freshness of the morning, the booming of cannon from 
the citadel announced a military inspection at Ghizeh by 
the Pasha, and reminded us that the land of the Pharaohs 
is in the keeping of a deputy of the Sultan of Turkey. It 



THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX. 341 

seemed as though we had come to the burial-place of 
Egypt, and these heavy solemn reverberations between the 
Mokuttam and the pyramids, were funeral honors to the 
mighty dead. 

A ride of two hours brought us in sight of the sphinx, 
and being in advance of the party, I had leisure to inspect 
it alone. Of all the monuments of Egypt, this is the most 
mysterious, and the most impressive. On the verge of the 
desert, whose sands are heaped around it, in advance of the 
three pyramids that stand as an immovable phalanx to 
guard it from destruction, this colossal figure, — the human 
head upon the body of an animal, emblematic of " the union 
of intellect and physical force," ■ — measuring more than 
sixty feet from the ground to the crown of the head, more 
than a hundred feet around the forehead, and nearly a 
hundred and fifty feet in length, all cut from the solid rock, 
looks out in unfathomable silence over the empty plain, 
where once stood Memphis in the pride of the earlier 
Pharaohs, and where Cambyses battered down that pride 
with the recklessness of a barbarian invader. Once an 
altar stood before it, and a dromos of crouching lions and 
other figures formed a fit approach to the gigantic symbol 
of Egypt deified. Now the sand drifts in perpetually to 
hide all but the head, whose sublime repose neither the war- 
club of the Persian, nor the fury of the sirocco, has ever 
disturbed. 

"The site of the 'pyramids is on the very edge of the 
desert, on a rising ground faced by numerous excavated 
tombs, about a hundred and twenty-seven feet above the 
present level of the Nile. The great pyramid, that of 
Cheops, is the most northern of the series. The second 
lies to the south-west of it, on a somewhat higher ground, 
and the third is in the same direction, on ground still a 
little higher. At the south corner of the first are three 
29* 



342 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

of the smaller pyramids, one of which is ascribed by Herod- 
otus to the daughter of Cheops ; and to the south-west 
corner of the third, are other three similar fabrics. There 
is the site of a temple to the east of the second pyramid. 
Ranges of tombs run parallel north and south. Near the 
margin of the rock, overlooking the valley of the Nile, 
stands the sphinx, on a line with the southern edge of the 
second pyramid." The pyramids are in the heart of a 
great necropolis, of which these are the most stupendous 
monuments ; — " too great a morsel for time to devour." 

Instead of useful works, like nature great, 
Enormous cruel wonders crushed the land, 
And round a tyrant's tomb, who none deserved, 
For one vile carcase perished countless lives. 

The advent of our party called me from the sphinx to 
the pyramid of Cheops. Pictures and descriptions have 
made this so familiar, that all details of its magnitude are 
superfluous. And, indeed, no idea of the great pyramid 
can be given by the statement, that it covers an area of 
nearly five hundred and fifty thousand square feet, measures 
seven hundred and fifty feet upon each of its four sides at 
the base, and is four hundred and sixty feet in height, or 
that it would fill the whole length of Washington Square in 
New York, and exceed its breadth by one half, and would 
rise nearly two hundred feet higher than the spire of Trinity 
Church. The mass of the masonry is what impresses you. 
Eighty-five million cubic feet of sohd masonry gives you no 
very definite idea of the mass of stone here piled together, 
with such mathematical precision, that astronomical calcula- 
tions could be based upon its angles and shadows. No, you 
must see the mass itself, not now smooth and polished, as 
when originally completed, but stripped of its outer casing, 
and showing tier on tier of huge stones squared and fitted 



THE PYRAMIDS AND SPHINX. 343 

• 

at mathematical angles, and now forming a series of rude 
steps each from two to four feet high, by which, if strong 
nerved, you may clamber unaided to the top, or up which 
you may be dragged by two Arabs pulling by your arms, 
while a third applies the vis a tergo. I chose the latter 
method as the safest for the nerves of my friends below, to 
say nothing of my own, and reached the summit in about 
twelve minutes. 

To guard against annoyance from my guides, I stipulated 
that no demand should be made for hachsheish till they had 
landed me safe at the bottom again, when they should be 
amply remunerated. But before we were one third of the 
way up, one who spoke in broken English, began the clamor : 
" Master no sick ; master no tired ; master give very good 
hachsheish ; master give pound hacksheish'^ -, and on reaching 
an open space, called the half-way house, they refused to 
carry me to the top without instant payment of hachsheish, 
I told them I had no money, and in proof handed them my 
purse, which I had taken the precaution to empty. With 
much disappointment and grumbling, they resumed the 
ascent, but on reaching the top, renewed their clamor, to the 
great discomfort of a meditative mood. 

The top of the great pyramid is now a platform about 
thirty feet square. The view from this elevation is unpar- 
alleled in the world. Before you is Cairo, with its lofty 
minarets and its overhanging citadel, — the mountains of 
Mokuttam skirting its rear; the green valley of the Nile is 
spread out for miles northward and southward ; at your feet 
are the mounds of sand that cover the ancient Memphis ; south- 
ward is the whole range of pyramids to Sakkara; behind 
you are fragments of other pyramids, the Lybian mountains 
and the wide waste of the Great Desert. But the present 
view is lost in the associations of the Past. You are stand- 
ing upon a monument that is known to have stood within a 



344 EGYPT, PAST AND PRESENT. 

score of four thousand years ; that was as old as are our 
associations of Plymouth Rock, when Abraham came into 
Egypt, and journeyed to Memphis to enjoy the favor of the 
king. He looked with wondering eyes upon this selfsame 
monument, and heard the then dim tradition of the tyrant 
who, having built it for his own sepulchre by the sweat and 
blood of half a million of his subjects, was compelled to beg 
of his friends to bury him privately in some secret place, 
lest after his death, his body should be dragged by the 
people from the hated tomb. 

Here, too, was the site of a city whose foundation dates 
within the first century after the flood, and which stood for 
nearly three thousand years ; a city of twenty miles in cir- 
cumference, that divided with Thebes the honors of the 
capital, and at length became the head of all Egypt. But 
no trace of Memphis, the Noph of Scripture, can now be 
found, excepting two or three mutilated statues, whose frag- 
ments adorn the British Museum, and some rude outline of 
its form in now shapeless masses of stone. A hundred years 
ago, the position of Memphis was entirely unknown. Sir 
Gardner "Wilkinson expresses his surprise that " so few re- 
mains of this vast city can be found," and says, " that the 
only traces of its name in the country are preserved by 
very doubtful tradition, and. the manuscripts of the Copts." 
That so great a city, the capital of so mighty an empire, 
should have passed from the memory of men, may well be a 
marvel to the mere antiquarian ; but the reader of prophecy 
will remember that Jeremiah foretold expressly, that " Noph 
shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant^ (xlvi. 19). 

The first view of the pyramids impressed me with their 
grandeur as the monuments of kings, — - the parting view filled 
me with awe of their solemn majesty as monuments of de- 
parted empires. The kings that built them prepared a 
tombstone for Egypt against her burial. Since I first saw 



EGYPT A SEPULCHRE. 345 

them from the Delta, I had traversed for Jfive hundred miles 
the valley of the Upper Nile, and had found it filled with 
buried cities : I had seen Thebes a ruin, and now saw the 
utter desolation of Noph and On. The whole Nile valley- 
is a sepulchre, where Egypt is buried, and these are the 
monuments that mark the entrance to the tomb. Descend- 
ing, I stood again in the solemn presence of the sphinx ; 
and that huge mysterious head looked out, motionless, 
fathomless, while the shadows of the ages deepened, till the 
grave of Egypt was shrouded in eternal night. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

The following is the religious chant referred to on page 32, whose 
notes form the recitative of the Nile song. 




La i - - la - - ha 



The following is a table of Egyptian Dynasties prepared for Bohn*s 
edition of the Letters of Lepsius. It contains the Lists of Manetho, 
and the dates of Biinsen and Lepsius. The list compiled by Mr. 
Poole, and reducing very much the antiquity of these dates, will be 
found in Appendix C. 



348 



APPENDIX. 



!3 O J. 

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is S^ 



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a 



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•llSTNia 



APPENDIX. 



349 



REMARKABLE EVENTS. 


Builder of the Great Pyramid of 

Gizeh. 
Builds the second Pyramid. 

Builds the third Pyramid. 




Phiops (Moeris) formed out of the 
desert, the fertile district of the 
Fayoum. 


II 


3 


CD 
CO 


CO 






S 
^ 




o 

CO 


«2 

i 

O O 


Cheops, Herodotus 

Chufu 

Chephren 

Schafra 

Menkera 

Mykerinus 


§ 
S 


Apappus, Eratos., the 
Mceris of the Greeks 
and Romans. 


Names of the Kings 

in the Lists of 

Manetho, or of 

Eratosthenes. 


Saophis \ 

Saophis II. \ 

Mencheres ( 
Mencheres II. \ 
Pammes 


Usercheris 

Snephres 

Nephercheres 

Sisires 

Cheres 

Rathures 

Mencheres 

Tancheres 

Onnos 


Othoes 

Phios 

Methusuphis 

Phiops 

Menthesuphis 

Nitokris (a queen), 
widow of Phiops, 
reigned after the 
death of her son 
Menthesuphis 


•Kiarao 


•axiHJicai\[ 


•aKixiiYHjaig: 


•axiHareapi 


.iigvNia 


> 


> 


P 



30 



350 



APPENDIX, 



a> CO cc oa 

w- o E-i 

§-2 I g 

s 2 I p 

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o3 aj cl 
b! r; O 






11 

o o 



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O ri 






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fl r« S 






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2H 



irfl OJ 



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00 CO 
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o a 



t 

a g 



•iivaaHX 



APPENDIX. 



351 



s 

1 


Ramesses II. built many of the 
chief monuments now existing. 
Formed the Cave Temples at 
Abu-Simbel. 

His monument, the Colossus at 
Mitrahenny, on the site of Mem- 
phis. 

Great extension of Thebes under 
Sethos I. 


Ramses III. leads great armies into 
Asia, and is a conqueror nearly 
equal in renown to Sethos I. and 
his son Ramesses II, Built the 
Temples of Medinet-Habu. 


III 
IS 


3 


o 


o 

l-H 
d 


1 


1409 
1322 


r- 

g 


1 

»-< 

'So 


Ramses 

Seti 
Sesostris 

Menophres 

Seti 


1 


Names of the Kings 

in the Lists of 

Manetho, or of 

Eratosthenes. 


Ramesses 
Sethos I. 
Ramesses 11. 

Miamun 
Menopthah 
Sethos II. 


Merr-Ra 
Ramses III. 

" IV. 

" V. 

« VI. 

« VII. 

« VIII. 

« IX. 

« X. 

" XI. 

" XII. 

« XIII. 


•Kiorao 


•NvaaHX 


•KYaaHX 


•ilSVNia 


1— 1 
X 





352 



APPENDIX. 



■ 1 

1 

•< 

1 




Sheshonk I. takes Jerusalem about 
970, and many cities in Judtea, 
He is the Schischak of the Bible. 






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Menephthah 

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Pianch 

Pi-Scham-Miamn II. 


Sesonchis 
Usuken, Userken, 
Oserkan 

Takiloth 


Pet-subast, Pet-Pacht 
Oserkna, Userken 
P-Si-Mut 




Names of the Kings 

in the Lists of 

Manetho, or of 

Eratosthenes. 


Smendes 

Phusemes 

Nephercheres 

Menophthes 

Osochor 

Phinaches 

Phusemes 


Sheshonk I. 
Osorkon I. 

Peher 

Osorkon II, 
Sheshonk II. 
Takelet I. 
Osorkon III. 
Sheshonk III. 
Takelet II. 


Petubastes 
Osorcho 
Psammus 
Zet, Sethos 




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> 
XI 



APPENDIX. 



353 



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Psammetichus 






Names of the Kings 

in the Lists of 

Manetho, or of 

Eratosthenes 


Sevech I. 
Sevech II. 
Tirhaka 


Stephinales 
Nechepsos 
Necho I. 
Psammetik I. 
Necho II. 
Psammetik II. 
Psammetik III. 


Cambyses 
Darius I. 

Hystaspis 
Xerxes I. 
Artabanos 
Artaxerxes 
Xerxes II. 
Sogdianos 
Darius II. 

Nothus 


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30 



354 



APPENDIX. 



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I 



APPENDIX. 



855 



C. 



The following is Mr. Poole's table of the kings whose chrono- 
logical places he considers certain, from the first dynasty to the nine- 
teenth dynasty inclusive. The dynasties and kings are arranged in 
their proper relative places, according to the authority of the monu- 
ments. The term " Unknown," signifies that the hieroglyphics be- 
longing to the place are not fully deciphered. A blank signifies that 
the parallel reign is as yet conjectural. 



H 

M 
M 


s 


Useserkef 
or Usercheres, 
B. c. 2440 
Shafra or Sephres 

Nufrarkara 

or Nephercheres 
Seserenra 

or Sisires 


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Era, B.C. 2717 

Athothis 

Kenkenes 

Uenephes 

Usaphaidos 

Miebidos 

Semempses 

Bieneches 

Unknown 


•J 

1 


Boethos, 

B. c. 2470. 

Chaiechos 

Binithris 
Tlas 

Sethenes 
Menkara 
or Chaires 



356 



APPENDIX. 



M 

c 

p-l 

m 
O 

S 


f 


Unknown, 

B. c. 2200 
Unknown 
Unknown 

Unknown 

Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 

i 


i. 


f 


Nantef I. 
or Achthoes, 
B. c. 2200 
Nantef II. 

Nantef III. 

Nantef IV. 
Munthotp II. 


|i 


Unknown 

Unknown 

Unknown 

Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 

Unknown 

Unknown 

Unknown 
Unknown 

Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 


3i» 


Ratoises 
Bicheris 
Sebercheres 
Thamphthis 


1 

CD 


Tuta or Othoes, 

B. c. 2200 
Unknown 
Papa or Phiops 

Menthesuphis 
Nitokris 




it 


Nufrekara 

or Nephercheres 
Nufrekara 

or Nebee 
Tetkara-Ma 
Nufrekara 

or Khentub 
Merenhor 
Snufreka . 

or Sesochris 
Kaenra 

or Cheneres 

Nufrekara or Rerer 

. . . Nufreka 
Nufrekaenseb 

or Papa 
Snufreka Annu 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Unknown 





APPENDIX. 



357 





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358 



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